A Murder of Mochi
by Marshmellows and Mittens
Summary: I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred. Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time.
1. Why Should I

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm_ _sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 **Pairings:**

 _Um... Undecided?_

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 **Why Should I**

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Being related to two midgets, a giant and consequently being a very large giant myself wasn't exactly how I had planned my childhood.

Actually, having a french toasting huge Pops and an equally french toasting tiny mother hadn't been in my plans either.

Frankly, non of my life had ever been in my plans.

Especially my family. They were no where in the, "Let's Live A Perfectly Normal and Comfortable Existence" syllabus.

Really, while I was a tiny little toddler in Heaven, and God pointed at my parents, telling me they were the ones, I must've been really screwed up-cause who in the h-e-double-hockey-stick agrees to be born to such a fantastically eccentric familial unit?

I'll tell ya who:

NO ONE!

Not that I don't love those freakoid weirdos, but, they're, you know, weird. Period.

To explain to you how unnatural my existence is, you'll just have to listen to the awesomely awesome narrative of my life, narrated by yours truly!

Fun part is, you guys get to skip straight to my oh-so-wonderful (read: HA-HA-HA-NO!) high school days. I'm leaving you guys out on a cliff here! No childhood trauma, no amazing story of how I got kidnapped by youkai when I was a tyke, nope, nada, zilch! You guys get the boring angsty stuff!

Ha-ha! Just kidding guys, I wouldn't do that to you… Or would I?

I would. I'm that evil. Don't tempt me.

…

Okay, so, I lied; sue me.

You guys have to relive my teenage years with me!

No, really.

I wasn't joking.

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Did you think I jested you! Nay, my fair listener, you shall have to listen to my constant droning for the duration of this Introduction!

Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

( _Hey does anyone know where the sound effect remote went? That was totally less dramatic without the organ playing and the lightening-Wait, Hidekoyo, why are you smiling like that? Hideko-WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY REMOTE!? NOOOO! Hideykoyo, you jerk-face, give me my darn remote back you-you-you-!_ )

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I was having a wonderful dream. It had rainbows and butterflies and pegasi (no unicorns-no, nope, absolutely not; they're just so stuck up, thinking they're all high and mighty with those fancy horns of theirs… IT IRRITATES ME SO BADLY! Oh, wait, calm down, I can't go flaming unicorns at five in the morning, that's just not healthy) and even these cute little green mochi balls with adorable little eyes, and man, would these buggers sell like candy! I need to make some of these when I wake up, yeah that sounded good… After like, another hour of sleep though, THE MOCHI MASTER NEEDS HER SLEEP GUYS! NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO AWAKEN THE MOCHI-

"KOYOSHIKI, GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED OR SO HELP ME-"

Okay, so that whole, "THE MOCHI MASTER NEEDS HER SLEEP"-thing might be sort of invalid right about now.

"Yes, dearest mother of mine!"

I fell out of bed, and after giving my favorite pillow one last look of farewell, scrambled to get my work clothes on.

Okay, okay, don't panic, your mother's just, you know, out for your blood, and might bite your head off if you're not down stairs in the next five seconds. The norm.

No reason to freak out, right?

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Oh, who am I kidding; I DON'T WANNA DIEEEE!

I swear, I always put clothes on the fastest in the morning because of my scary mama.

It takes two seconds for my grey sweat shirt and pants to find themselves on my torso and legs, one second for my short hair to contained by a bandana, two seconds for my shoes to be on my feet and- OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS IT'S BEEN FIVE SECONDS, MAMAN'S GONNA HAVE MY HEAD ON A SILVER PLATTER LIKE JOHN THE BAPTIST!

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"Sweetheart, where's your apron?"

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"GYAH! MAMAN, I BEG OF YOU, SPARE MY LIFE!"

There was a brief moment of silence, and then, just when my fate was about to be decided-

 _Snort. Snort, snort._

My mother just rolled her eyes at me _and_ she snorted at me! She did, she really, really did! How dare she? I was being (half) serious!

With an accusatory finger, pointed straight at my mother, I declared, "Woman! I demand my opinions be taken seriously!"

She raised an elegant eyebrow at me, and my midget mother was clearly amused at my very awesome declaration, so, she decided to make one of her own:

"Koyoshiki, if you can go upstairs, get your apron like a normal person, and come back down like a normal person, I might ignore the fact that you just called me 'Woman'."

You see, I'm a smart person. I pick my battles.

That said, it was totally, absolutely logical for me to slowly ascend the staircase, grab my white apron that was decked out with various assortments of wonderfully rainbow-colored stickers, and calmly make my way down to my chortling mother.

(Yes, she was chortling; my mother likes to snort after each "Ha-ha", so it usually ends up sounding like, "Ha-ha-snort, Ha-ha-ha-snort-snort".)

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So far, beside almost having my mother guillotine my head, everything was fine and dandy in our little family run mochi shop!

Yes, yes, it was just perfect until my mortal enemy walked right through the door.

Ukai Keishin, the Ultimate Mango, the Blonde Porcupine-whatever you wish to call him. This fiend has always liked to loiter around our shop while he's on lunch break, just as he has since he was in high school and I was merely a snot-nosed brat.

Bad mistake, Mango-kun, I am simply not the same snot-nosed brat from 8 years ago.

My trusty Ladle raise overhead (don't ask where the Ladle came from, it's a secret, jeez), I valiantly attacked with the brave war cry of, "STICKERSSS!"

My enemy was skilled. He had come prepared with his own Broomstick of Destruction! Drats!

We fought until one of us could stand no longer.

More specifically, when my mother offered the Mango a seat in the foyer, he couldn't refused, and I grinned, proud of my undeniable brilliant battle tactics, victoriously watching as my enemy hung his head, and accepted his honorable defeat.

With Ladle on my shoulder, I nodded sagely as I patted the top of his head, "You fought unceasingly, dear Mango-kun, but the wise Master will always defeat the arrogant Student."

 _Slap!_

What is this!? My student retaliated!

"Koyoshiki, don't pet my head, you brat."

With a grin and the thrust of my Ladle, I proclaimed, "But, Mango-kun, you're just so small and cute~"

He twitched. (Who's talking in the background? Is that Maman? Eh, I dunno, right know, I just want to make Mango-kun _suffer._ )

Ohhh, I know I've got him, he so wants to just hit me upside the head right now, He's just so sensative about his height, you know-

"And you're so large and scary, Amazon-san."

It was my turn to twitch.

"Oi, Mango-kun-"

"Yes, Amazon-san?"

"Aren't you supposed to be the adult here? Didn't my mother ask you to look after the shop while she got us some lunch?"

We stared at each other.

"Did she really say that...?" Keishin ventured.

"Well, I dunno know...?" I questioned.

I glanced at the sign on the door that said, "Sorry, closed for lunch!"

I nodded, "Yeah, I think that's why she left.."

We stared at each other again.

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AWKWARD! AWKWARD, AWKWARD, AWKWARD!

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I never loved my mother so much as when I heard that door chime ring.

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"Mango-kun, get you and your awkwardness out of here!"

"Hai, hai, Amazon-san."

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My mother didn't understand what was going on at all. That's okay, 'cause she would've really decapitated me had she seen the, "Kick Me" sign I put on Mango-kun just before he left.

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Hidekoyo, my weirdo midget gymnast sister from a distant planet, talked about her day at Karaoke, and all the cool stuff she saw at the mall with her friends.

Only when she described a shiny new pair of swim googles at the sporting goods store, did I bother joining into the conversation.

Swimming, oh, how I love the sport, how I love the water, how I hate the girls who go to the rec center pool just to crowd the lanes and gossip.

Anyway!

I munched on a stock broccoli, because I had yet to finish my dinner, and my sister chewed on a sakura daikon (ewwwwwwwwww!) for dessert. (How she likes those monstrosities, I will never know!)

I was having a lovely time until my mother cleared her throat.

Hidekoyo and I froze.

I attempted to dive under the table, and my sister sprinted for the kitchen, but a cough stopped us dead in our tracks.

"Hide, you can leave. I just need to take to Yoshi."

I internally groaned.

 _Hidekoyo, you tratior, leaving me with mother by myself!_

...

Maman seemed pleasant enough.

I thought she was actually going to say something good for once, and I held onto that hope-

"Koyoshiki, you must attend school this year. No more excuses. I've hired an employee, and gotten everything ready, so, when first semester starts tomorrow, you'll be going."

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Then she up and left the room!

That wasn't very nice!

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Woahhhh, wait, wait, wait, hold up a moment, had she just really...?

"NOOOOOOOO!"

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Okay, so before I go on a rampage, I do believe this might need some explaining.

You see, Maman is a single mother of four, and with her two eldest sons in collage, she needed her oldest daughter (that would be me) to help her run the shop until she could afford to pay for another helping hand.

This predicament lead to me dropping out of my first year of high school about half-way through the year to assist my mother in the mochi making business. I wasn't too ecstatic at first, believe me, but now I seriously love making mochi!

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I could try to argue and get myself grounded, orrrrr, I could accept fate, and just go to freaking school tomorrow.

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I walked, downtrodden, as I began to say my goodbyes to all the mochi exquiptment.

"Goodbye, dear mochi ice cream freezer-I promise, we will see each other again-!"

My mother yelled at me to go to bed:

 _"You have a big day tomorrow!"_

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Yeah, sure, uhuh, what ever you say, Maman.

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 **So, what do you people think of my first attempted at a Haikyuu fanfiction?**

 **Good? Bad?**

 **I'd like your input!**

 **Thank You For Reading,**

 **Mellow-chan**


	2. Care About Being NORMAL

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 **Pairings:**

 _Um... Undecided?_

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 **Care About Being "NORMAL"**

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Pain, misery, all I fear, all I despise, is at this horrible place I like to call school (read: PRISON).

My and my beloved pillow hate this place so very much, because:

1.) It requires my getting out of bed.

2.) It also demands I part ways with my precious pillow, which is totally unacceptable!

3.) I have to socialize with people (as I say this, I'm shivering, 'cause, ew, people...).

and

4.) NO ONE IN THE HISTORY OF EVER HAS LIKED HAVING TO GO TO SCHOOL!

But, as it would seem, my mother had already gotten my school uniform, and had laid it out for me while I had been sleeping.

I tried not to cringe as I zipped my skirt up, and wiggled around a bit to that the zipper would rest against my hip. It felt weird to so the least. Having your legs being all exposed after half a year of nothing but sweat pants was like going out in public with shorts on in the winter. Luckily, my mother is quite the stickler when it comes to modesty, so my skirt naturally went down to my knees. In fact, they were just the perfect length to cover up the basketball shorts I had on underneath my navy colored monstrosity of a skirt.

Reluctantly, I buttoned up the mandatory itchy blouse, and then jammed the khaki sweater-vest over my head. I was pleasantly suprised by this particular article of clothing. It was loose, and amazingly baggy; at least two sizes too big. It was just how I liked my clothes.

Then came the awful part.

That stupid, horrible, french toasting bow.

Just looking at the red girliness made me wanna yack.

The fancy navy jacket that I was supposed to wear didn't even make itself present on my torso.

No way was I wearing that _thing_.

As I pulled my hair back with a plain old navy blue bandana, I wondered how my mother knew all my sizes to the dot.

The image of my stalkerish mother measuring my sprawled out body, snoring quietly on the floor flashed into my mind.

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Okay, yeah, that was pretty weird.

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Actually, that's _really_ disturbing.

Yeah. Can we pretend that never happened?

Okay.

Cool.

Yeah.

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Awkward...

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I hummed, my socked (is that a word? socked?) feet thumping down the stairs loudly as I entered the kitchen with my weird leather briefcase-backpack thing.

I gave my mother a kiss, my sister a noogie, and smiled at the picture of my freakishly tall dad grinning, which was located by the front door.

(I'll tell you more about him and my brothers later, but they're just, you know, alive as of right now, so I'd rather not dive into details.)

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-And, in case my dear fans were wondering, I was eating a wonderful soft block of grilled kakumochi as I walked through the door.

Yum.

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The entrance ceremony was boring.

Very boring.

Everyone kept staring at me and whispering as if I was some sort of rainbow-colored alien.

Do I look like a rainbow-colored alien to you!?

No.

No, I do not, thank you very much!

So, as I walked through the hallways, to my very first class of the very first day of arguably my first year in high school (don't get me wrong, I'm not stupid, of course I'm in my second year, it just feels like the first, 'kay?) I discovered that my giant 187.9 cm self naturally towered over every single soul in the current sea of humanity I was swimming along with.

Wonderful.

Now, I'm beginning to think Mango-kun wasn't exactly wrong for calling me an Amazon. Not that I'm excepting defeat, it's just I've opened up to the possibilities!

Yeah!

I hummed, walking into the classroom labeled:

 **Year 2: Class 1**

I hummed pleasantly, ignoring the stares of disbelief I received as I walked in, and I could see the bulging eyes as they noticed that the doorframe only had a measly 15 centimeters on me.

I looked about the room for familiar faces, but, unfortunately, none of this kids have ever stepped one foot into my store.

How insulting!

I glanced that the seating arrangements written on the chalkboard, and was relived to find I was situated in the back. Next to the window.

Score!

The only person seated besides me was someone named Ryuunosuke. I didn't bother with the last name. They're boring and too formal, and just, blek! Last names and -sans are for adults and elders-definitely not for people in my peer group.

The teacher, who, uh, I'd rather not describe as if right now, because I'm, uh, trying to, huh, um, yeah, so!-walked into the room as soon as everyone had setted down, and he requested that we all introduce ourselves.

HURRAH!

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Okay, maybe not HURRAH.

Everyone's introduction was very humanish. No one said they were aliens or espers or mafiosi or anything cool!

Really!

Then this thing came around to me, and I stood up.

Man, I wish I had pockets, I know I would've totally looked like some freaking awesome delinquent.

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I clapped my large hands together, enjoying the look of surprise on everyone's faces at the sudden, loud noise.

I grinned at the general populace, saying, "My name's Oozaki Koyoshiki, and despite my appearance, I assure you that I am not an alien, and I'll even promise not to eat anyone _unless_ they irritate me. I hope we can get through the year without me stepping on anyone, so please, let's all be good friends, okay?"

With a serene peace signand a sweet smile, I sat myself back down in my chair.

Everyone was staring at me with, if it was possible, an even weirder look than before! DO JAPANESE PEOPLE NOT COMPREHEND MY SARCASTIC HUMOR!? WHY ON EARTH DO THEY NOT LAUGH!? THEY'RE ROBOTS, ROBOTS I SAY!

I heard only two snickers, and one was from the Ryuunosuke kid sitting besides me.

I turned to him, and gave him a teary thumbs up of approval, which he returned with the super creepy stalker grin. I tried not to shiver when he did this, but seriously, that face could give children nightmares!

The source of the other laugh was currently unknown to me, but as soon as lunch rolled around, I was sooooo going to interrogate every single person in this classrom, whether they liked it or not!

[Insert evil cackling noises here.]

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THANK MY MOTHER'S MARVALOUS MOCHI MAKING IT'S LUNCH TIME!

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My lack of normality aside, as soon as that bell of midday freedom rang, I turned immediately to my neighbor... Tanada? Tanira? Tashida?... Well, it was some name that started with a 'T', Ryuunosuke.

"Hey, you're a pretty cool dude, laughing at my lame joke like that."

He gave me that creepy smile again, and I just couldn't help but shiver.

"Don't mention it, awesome chick whose name I've already forgotten!"

I stared at him, bemused at this answer. Usually people were all uptight and stiff when I would talk to them so casually, but this dude seemed to be pretty easy-going, "Oozaki Koyoshiki. You can just call me Yoshi."

"The name's Tanaka Ryuunosuke."

Again, with the creepy smile!

What's with that!?

I suppressed a shiver, and munched on my left over kakumochi from this morning, "Sho, Ruunoohshukeh," I swallowed, grinning, "Care to join to join me for lunch?"

The boy next to her returned her grin (this time, a normal grin, thank goodness), and called over someone from the front of the room.

"NOYA-SAN, GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!"

"YEAH, YEAH, TANAKA-SAN!"

I tilted my head.

"Noya-san," I parroted.

"Noya-san," Ryuunosuke assured.

Turns out Noya-san's real name was Nishinoya Yuu, and he had been the other kid that had laughed at my joke.

And he was short.

Really short.

Did I mention he was short?

I did?

Well, he's short.

Very.

Wait, wait, wait, that was mean of me, I shouldn't say that, my brother's around this shorties height, so I probably shouldn't diss him. That, and short people are freaking _terrifying_ when they're mad.

So scary. Just the thought makes me shiver and want to cry hysterically.

 _Ugh._

Nishinoya looked incredibly nervous. His face was pale, and his was grasping his hands together so tightly I could see his knuckle's turn this weird, but not unfamiliar, shade of flushed white.

"Hey Yuu," When I said this, it looked like he was choking on his own spit but, I decided to not give him an amused look and simply continued what I was about to say, "I'm not some freako chick that's gonna run away and say you've got cooties or something. I'm barely normal enough to be called human, heck I'm probably some alien my mother found in a crop field! So," I grinned giving him a cheerful thumbs up, "Don't be so stiff, you weirdo!"

The short guy seemed reluctant to accept this, so I, naturally being an...um...eccentric person, lunged over my desk and thumped him on the head.

"Cheer up already! Jeez, so uptight, you coconut."

Yuu yelped, grasping his head, his face regaining some it's color as he stuck his tongue out at me. I gasped loudly, then again, his face paled.

I screeched loudly, shaking my hands about wildly, most likely making myself look like a deranged tree that's limbs where flying everywhere, smacking people in the head.

"That's it! That right there! Act like I'm one of the guys!"

This drew a snort out of Yuu's freaking mouth, which I had been patiently waiting for thank you very much, and then, out of nowhere, Ryuunosuke jumped on his back, consequently ending up with both of them on the floor. I, seeing no problem with a friendly dog pile, leapt over my desk in order to sit of Ryuunosuke, who was on top Yuu, whom of which was dying from suffocation.

We all laughed, minus Yuu, who was sort of laughing and sort of crying. Then his face turned purple, and I started screaming, and Tanaka almost fainted, and I was yelling at someone to get the nurse while simultaneous shaking the purple face midget known as Nishinoya Yuu.

Wonderful, it's my first day and I end up killing someone.

...

Turns out, Yuu's not dead, thankfully, but he is a bit angry about it all.

Wait, no, correction, he was angry for the first five seconds, then he started laughing.

I think he's insane, but hey, I'm insane, and I'm pretty sure Tanaka is too.

I think this is gonna be a good year.

(Well, as long as I don't kill anyone that is.)

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When I made my valiant return home, the first thing I did was my homework.

Then, I went to sleep.

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What?

Were you expecting me to be some part time demon hunter? Um, no, sorry, just a normal, boring person here.

OH!

I also ate dinner.

 _Then_ I went to bed.

Yeah, that just about covers it.

Bye.


	3. When It's Totally

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 **Pairings:**

 _Um... Undecided?_

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 _.._

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 **When It's Totatally**

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I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred.

Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time.

Seriously that midget somehow manages to give me a heart attack every five seconds, and it's irritating!

Then, there's Ryuunosuke, who seems to think my immunity to his strange faces means, why, of course, this is challenging his manly pride (whatever _that_ is), therefore, he must make as many strange faces as possible in order for me to do _something_.

He says it would be better than what I usually do, which is just stare, or maybe poke his face or even patting his head, which would make him super angry.

So, you might be wondering why I'm giving this pointless monologue.

I'm in math class. The most horrible class in the history of the world, and I'm stuck in it, and- _oh my goodness is the teacher looking at me...?_

Oh, no never mind, he's just looking at Tanaka... Who's sleeping in class?

Really?

Truly?

I sighed, and massaged my temples.

What a dummy.

Despite my thinking this, I still couldn't help but want to laugh as the math teacher walked straight up to Ryuunosuke's desk, and promptly smacked a ruler right next to his head. When Tanaka's head flew up, drool flung everywhere... well, more specifically, right onto the teacher's sleeve.

I snorted, checking my watch.

Oh, there was only five mintues of class left. Such a shame. Tanaka was almost home free, too.

Math is the last class of the day.

...

Ryuunosuke stared in horror at the evilly grinning man we all addressed as "Sensei" .

"Tanaka-kunn~" He chirped in a, um, _disturbing_ , sing-song voice.

"Y-Y-Yes, Se-Sensei...?"

 _SMACK!_

I winced. Poor desk, getting abused because of Ryuunosuke's silly napping session.

"Please, do not sleep in my class, yes~"

Oh!

You should've see this weird, creepy scrunched up face the teach is giving poor "Tanaka-kunn~".

It was scary.

"H-H-H-Hai!"

And apparently, Ryuunosuke thought so to.

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"Tanaka-kunn~" I purred out at the end of the day.

He shivered, groaning as he sprawled himself out over his desk.

"Don't call me that, Yoshi-san, it's-" Cue another shiver.

"Weird?" I offered, before he could spew out nonsensical gibberish and make a bunch of odd faces.

"Yeah," He agreed as he gathered up his things, " _Weird_."

Yuu jumped up to us both, chatting with Ryuunosuke about the _Incident,_ and I laughed as Tanaka took a swipe at Yuu's head. Consequently, Yuu decided the best course of action would be for him to squawk out a battle cry and pounce on Ryuunosuke's back.

I cried out in amusement as I stood up from my chair, "Hey, I wanna piggy back ride to, Ryuunosuke!" Thankfully, these two were quite used to my informality, or we would have some serious problems.

Se-ri-ous pro-bl-ems!

Seriously!

Back to my narrative-

This statement brought of look of fear to Tanaka's face, because, hey, a tall person's also a naturally heavy person, got it? So, to put it nicely, my oversized self would _crush_ _him!_ That was to put it _pleasantly_!

Sadly, the fun ended when Yuu announced Ryuunosuke And He Had To Go To Volleyball Practice Because If They Were Late, Then Daichi-san Would Kill Them Both.

Yes, I realize I used capital letter for, like, three-quarters of that sentence, but if you had heard how Nishinoya had said it, you would put it like that to, because, hey, he made it sound like he really _would_ die if he was late.

Then both of the boys looked at each other, then to me, opened their mouths, and started their, "Yoshi-san, You Should Come To Practice With Us, It'd Be Like, Totally Cool Right?" campaign.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You guys ask that every other day. I already said no."

"But why noooooot?" They whined in unison.

I rolled my eyes as I slung my briefcase-thing (I still don't know what to call it...) over why shoulder, "Because I said nooooooo. Anyways maybe later, guys. I'm busy, remember?"

Yuu huffed, "Yeah, yeah, I think you just assume we're no good."

Ryuunosuke nodded in agreement, with his arms folded. Hold up, there's the creepy screwed up face again, "Yooooshhhhiiiiii-sannnnnnnnnnn~!"

Man, he was right, that sing-song voice was _weird_!

I merely snorted, "Aw, man, you dudes are such babies. I don't think that, I really am busy, okay? I'll go to your first Inter-High game, to make it up to ya, yeah?"

They glanced at each other again did a little victory dance, which I laughed at. Seriously, these two were so childish! So much fun!

We parted ways in the hallway; I was heading for the main entrance, while they sauntered off to the doors that led to the volleyball gymnasium. We waved, grinning at each other as we walked in opposite directions.

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"Volleyball, huh?" I murmured to myself I began my short walk home.

...

I couldn't help but grin at the irony.

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I leaned on the cash register counter at home.

I really, _really_ , wasn't lying bout being busy. Darn Maman. Giving that new employee short hours. Giving me extra work.

GAHHHH!

Oh, I think I just heard the store bell ring!

CUSTOMER!

"Sawamura-san, you're early! Would you like your usual?"

The kind eyed, brown haired woman smiled gently at me, with her grocery basket in hand as she nodded steadily, "Yes, thank you, Oozaki-chan."

I waved my hand loosely at her as I slipped on some latex gloves, and a small box, "Sawamura-san, call me Yoshi, my sister's the stuffy, 'Oozaki-chan' around here- and would you like three ume daifuku and three anko daifuku or just six anko daifuku?"

The middle aged woman hummed.

"How about four anko and two shio?"

I tilted my head slightly, but didn't argue.

Sawamura-san had a sweet tooth, and something salty like shio daifuku really didn't fit.

I placed her order into our signature box, then punched it into the cash register, "That'll be ¥911.52, please!"

"Hai, hai," Sawamura-san handed me a ¥1,000 bill, and I briefly calculated her change. After a few seconds of gathering up the change, I handed her the appropriate ¥89.48.

She smiled at me, and whenever Sawamura-san smiles at me, I can't help but feel very pleased with myself.

Hey, don't judge, it'd like a giant load of wonderful flowers getting dumped on your face whenever someone that pleasant smiles at you! Naturally, it makes ya happy!

"Goodbye, Oozaki-san."

"Sawamura-san, I keep telling you to call me, Yoshi!"

She laughed as she exited the store.

I grumbled to myself as I checked my watch, "Man, Sawamura-san is as stubborn as ever!"

It was 3:56.

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

"Yoshi, can you take the left over jagaimo and sakura mochi to the Ukais? You know how Ukai-san and Keishin-kun like it so much!"

I glance at the time.

'4:37'

"Yeah, I guess so, Maman. Lemme get an extra bento box, there's a lot of mochi left over today!"

...

I hummed as I proceeded to the Sakanoshita Store. It wasn't very far from Karasuno, so it wasn't very far from my own home. I'm sure glad it's not too far away; I go to this store every three days to do something for my mom, and it'd be quite unpleasant it the walk was more than fifteen minutes.

I hummed as I grasped the black cloth that held my orange bento box.

It was dimming outside, and the sunset over the mountains looked especially beautiful. I sighed happily as a cool breeze fluttered past.

I was glad no one was really out near the school at this time of day, because I'm not sure how people would react to seeing a giant wandering around the place in a white muscle shirt, black athletic shorts, and orange Converse shoes.

Someone might call an onmyouji or something.

...

Okay, maybe not a onmyouji, but maybe a miko!

Or not, just forget I said that.

...

I arrived at Sakanoshita in a relatively short time, and I was surprised to see Ukai-san at the cash register instead of a certain irritating blonde guy. Ukai-san was very pretty, and she had the longest, silkiest black hair ever, and she was so, so nice! Total opposite of Mango-kun. Really, I don't even know how the two are related!

"Ukai-san," I greeted as I looked cautiously about the store.

He wasn't gonna pop out of nowhere and whack me on the head, is he? Or does he have that Neighborhood Volleyball Association today?

"Ah, Yoshi-chan, you have extras today? Why, it's only Wednesday!" Ukai-san smiled pleasantly as I unraveled the black cloth, placing the two bentos in front of her.

"Maa, maa, they're your favorites, and far too good to go to waste, Ukai-san." I replied cheerfully as I shifted on my feet to make myself more comfortable. She flicked her lock hair over her shoulder and she opened the sakura mochi box, plopping on in her mouth.

"Yum, your Kyoto-Style sakura mochi is amazing as always Yoshi-chan!" As she said this, she eyed the other box, "This one's for Kenshin?"

I nodded as I leaned on the counter. I yawned.

SO SLEEPY!

"Yoshi, Kenshin told me to watch the store, while he headed off to Karasuno. I'm sort of afraid those silly children won't eat dinner. You... you wouldn't mind bringing this to him and his team, no?"

Well, there goes my chances at sleep right there.

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

I swear, I'm gonna kill Mango-kun.

Violently.

I was so sleepy, I could just die, but you know what?

I had to go deliver dinner to him and his friends, and be denied my needed nap-DON'T YOU PEOPLE KNOW TALL PEOPLE NEED SLEEP?!

Blah.

Just... blah.

Kill me now, I don't think I survive!

(NO, I'm not being mellow dramatic at ALL!)

...

As I stood in front on one of the windows, peering into the volleyball gym, I lost all words to communicate my freaking disoriented thoughts.

Why were Ryuunosuke and Yuu playing on the Neighborhood Association team?

Why was Mango-kun standing all high and mighty and coach-like and franking, like a werido?

Why was there a whole bunch of-

OH MY HOLY GUACAMOLE, DID YOU JUST SEE THAT SHORT GUY JUMP, GOODNESS GRACIOUS, I THINK I MIGHT DIE OF A HEART ATTACK, THAT'S JUST NOT NATURAL!

...

Okay, okay, calm down, yeah, yeah, just calm down, noting to see here, nothing to see here, naw, you just saw a shortie jump like a flying squirrel, that's perfectly normal...

WHO AM I KIDDING THAT'S WEIRD! I ONLY THOUGHT MY FREAKO BROTHER COULD JUMP THAT HIGH!

...

Someone, save me.

...

I breathed in deeply, probably resembling some old person inhaling while meditating or something weird like that, and gathered my discombobulated thoughts. I'm totally good now. Tooooo-taaaaaa-lyyyyyy!

I puffed out my cheeks. No way was I going to act like a headless chicken int here in front of Mango-kun! That'd be, like, totally _,_ um, a, I dunno what it'd be like, I can't find words right now, 'cause I'm confused; sue me! I'm not an author!

I cautiously opened the door, and I recognized the sound of a volleyball hitting someone's forearms, and then, the awful, awful sound of it hitting someone's face.

More precisely, my face.

Okay, so, you might me like, hey, giant lady, a volleyball in the face can't hurt _that_ much, right?

Well, I can assure you, it hurts _that much_.

Is my nose bleeding?

Wait, I think it is.

I glanced down at my white shirt, which was now stained with blood.

Yup, it's bleeding.

I shrugged.

Mango-kun looked like he was gonna cried.

Why?

Well, I'm not very sure, but I think the whole volleyball match just stopped as soon as my face got intimately acquainted with that volleyball.

"Heyyy," I greeted with the wave of my hand.

...

"Ah," A certain Tokinoue Yuusuke started weakly, his face pale as he raised his hand up, "Sorry, Yoshi-chan... I guess I need to work on my receives?"

I snorted, then gagged as blood flowed back up my nose, giving my mouth this really disgusting metalllicy taste.

"Gee, you _guess_?"

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry?"

"Sorry, he says," I started, very much in disbelief, "I need to work on my receives, he says! Well, don't worry Yuushuke-chi; I'll kill you later. I promise to make it gentle, since I'm nice."

Aw, man, more blood's getting all over my shirt! This isn't cool at all!

Yuusuke seemed to have all the fighting spirit sucked out of him, and he hung his head.

Ha!

I always win, remember that, my dear readers!

...

Then, Mango-kun look agitated, and he stalked over to me with a kleenex, tore it in half, then shoved it up my two nostrils. How rude, not to mention weird! Hasn't this guy ever heard of young, beautiful girls needing their space?

Jeez!

"What. Are. You. Here. For." He demanded.

I pouted at him, then stuck my tongue out, "Wellll, I came here to deliver your dinner," I held up the bento, "But since you're being so mean, I guess you don't get any _jagaimo mochi_!"

...

Oh, that struck a chord.

He looks sad now.

Aww, Mango-kun's brooding! How cute!

...

Suddenly, it was like the whole room snapped out of their state of shock, and it was like someone turned on the, "Oh, Look There's A Strange Person In The Gym Who Got A Nosebleed," switch.

"Who's the tall lady?"

"Is she okay? That looked like it hurt..."

"How does she know Coach..."

"YOSHI-SAN!" Okay, I hope I don't need to explain which two dummies said this, because if I do, I might give up on humanity.

"Oozaki-san!"

I cringed.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT DAICHI, I'LL KILL YOU TOO!"

I'm pretty positive no one expected me to spew out death threats so early into my introduction, so here's the explanation:

So, I like Sawamura-san. She's nice. I love her. Cool, right?

I'm not very fond of Daichi. To polite. Always calls me Oozaki-san. Makes me feel old. It irritates me. Got it? 'Kay. Good.

He cowered for a second, and he didn't seem to want to get off the court, so he replied in a loud voice, "Are...you okay?"

I pursed my lips together.

"Just peachy."

He snorted, and I threw a pen I had in my pocket at him.

Aw, he dodged it!

No fun!

...

Wah, so many people I don't know!

Like, oh-

"MIDGET THAT'S NOT YUU!"

"I'M NOT A MIDGET, YOSHI-SAN!"

"YEAH, WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT, YUU!"

"WHAT BOAT!"

"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP! YOU GUYS, CONTINUE THE GAME!"

Man, Mango-kun is such a party pooper, right?

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

Anko daifuku- mochi stuffed with red bean paste

Ume daifuku- mochi stuffed with Japanese apricot

Shio daifuku- mochi stuffed with unsweetened anko, making it taste salty instead of sweet

Jagaimo mochi- mochi dumplings

sakura mochi- anko mochi wrapped in a salted sakura leaf


	4. BORING!

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 **Pairings:**

 _Undecided_

 _._

 _.._

 _..._

* * *

 _..._

 _.._

 _._

 **BORING!**

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

I took a seat on the ground, my back leaning against the wall as I pursed my lips together in a pout. Man, since my nose was full of kleenex, I'm sure I'm gonna sound like I have a cold whenever I decide to talk to someone, which makes me sound funny, which makes no one take me seriously, which _sucks_!

But, since I don't have time to be worrying about such silly things, Imma concentrate on the people playing volleyball in front of me.

...

I hummed as I watched the game continue. I have to say, after my amazing entrance, I was genuinely surprised how fast they all managed to get their heads back in the game. Usually, it would take a couple minutes, but for these guys, it only took a few seconds. Anyways, I was impressed.

I know Mango-kun was glancing at me every five seconds, as if to say, "Well, what do you think?", but I couldn't make any assumptions before I at least saw _five minutes of the freaking game_. Really, he was just so impatient sometimes.

I rested my elbows on my knees, and smiled dreamily.

I haven't played volleyball in forever.

Not that I ever really played on a team, but, I used to play around with-

Oh, the tall guy, with his hair in a bun (heh, it looks like a meat bun!), was going in for a play. This should be promising! I stared with slight interest as he went in for a spike.

My eyes widened at the sight of his [the dude with the bun] muscles flexing in mid-air, and there was this huge silence as the yellow team blockers went up in the air.

 _Slam!_

It was a split second.

Just a split second, but Yuu was suddenly _right there_ and I tried to remember to breathe as I saw his block-follow.

"Awesome," I said to myself, but I'm pretty sure everyone was thinking the same exact thing.

Meat Bun and Yuu seemed to be talking, and then this silver hair dude (who I'm going to call Mochigome) came into the conversation as well. I could hear Yuu shouting, calling Meat Bun "Ace".

I giggled. The whole thing was so cheesy that it was literally giving me the shivers.

Meat Bun nodded (Are his eyes watering? What's with this guy?) and when the next chance ball came around, he _screamed_ from a toss.

It was loud. Kind of unpleasant too, but it seemed to make Yuu and the Mochigome happy.

...

It was like a nice waltz-Mochigome's toss. It was a well-timed 1-2-3, and then, _KA-BOOM!_

A point for the Neighborhood Association.

I bounced my feet a little, to try and get rid of the goosebumps I get whenever I see awesome things .

Meat Bun's team's serve, and a nice one at that.

I winced as Daichi called out, "Ennoshita!", and said person weakly received the volleyball. Mango-kun was talking to the guy that I assumed was the volleyball team's advistor, but his face had this look that said, "Well, that needs work-"

I raised an eyebrow, and Mango-kun apparently noticed the black haired guy going in to cover that poor receive, "Oh, look, that setter's real confident about where the ball's going to drop-"

...

I could already see it coming.

There was that orange haired kid from before (we'll just call him Flying Squirrel), and he was racing towards the net, and even before his feet left the ground, I was also on my feet because, oh my rainbow colored stickers-!

 _BAM!_

 _..._

Nobody even stood a lick of a chance.

...

I was jumping up and down on the balls of my feet, ranting excitedly, because, I swear, that jump and that spike had just sent me straight back in time, "Mango-kun, Mango-kun! That spike! That spike-!"

Kenshin nodded, looking very much stunned into utter silence, "Yeah, I know. Amazon what do you think-"

"That setter's amazing! So is Flying Squirrel! Did you see it? He didn't even look at it! That setter went, SHOO, and then he went WAHH!"

Mango-kun was losing patience with my gibberish apparently, so he growled and was all like, "HEY! YOU SHRIMP! WHY THE HECK DID YOU JUST JUMP!?"

Flying Squirrel looked insulted by the "Shrimp" comment, but quietly muttered, " B-Because, where ever I jump, the toss'll go...?"

Ukai glance at both the setter, and Flying Squirrel, and proclaimed, "What's wrong with you two? Are you just freaks of nature!?

"Freaks?" They looked at each other.

"Why'd he say that?"

"Are we?"

"Well, I dunno?"

"Maybe?"

...

I kinda got ignored by Mango-kun, the advisor, and everyone else from then on, but I was way too into the match to really care.

I might love swimming, but I had grown up watching volleyball, going to volleyball matches every weekend, and playing volleyball with my brother. Volleyball was ingrained to my soullllll!

I was shaken out of my reverie by Mango-kun pointing at me while he was talking to Advisor-san.

"Oh, that guy? Yeah, him and this Amazon know each other pretty good from what my Grandfather's told me."

Advisor-san's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and I was mildly concerned for him.

"W-Wha-? R-Really?"

I looked at Mango-kun, and made this weird face to annoy him, "Who're you talking about? I know a lot of people, thank you very much!"

"You know who I'm talking about. The flying midget." He explained while pinching the bridge of his nose.

I tilted my head.

Who on earth was he talking about? Doesn't he know I'm dense? He needs to spell it out for me!

"Your _brother_ , you _idiot_."

"Huh? Which one?"

"THE MIDGET ONE!"

I thumped a fist on the palm of my hand, "Yeah, yeah, Toshi-nii, right? He was a lot like Flying Squirrel over there; had this freaky jump he would use to get the bowls from the high cupboards! He would also-Advisor-san, you look pale, do you need to sit down?"

...

The bespectacled man shook his head, "N-No, I'm f-fine.."

"You sure?" I asked, slightly concerned about his ashen expression.

"Y-Yes.."

I shrugged, "Whatever you say, Advisor-san..."

...

I was perfectly fine with how the game was going until Flying Squirrel got smashed straight in the forehead with a particularly nasty looking spike.

That made me wanna go throw someone out the window (maybe Yuu, he has experience with almost being thrown out a window, right? He wouldn't be _that_ mad, right?).

Then, the cool setter from before got all scary and had this weird, sour look on his face.

I gasped to myself.

"A-A-A S-Sour G-G-Grapefruit!"

Mango-kun slapped me upside the head when I said that.

What a meanie, right?

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

I yawned, my eyes fluttering open at the sound of a long whistle.

...

When had I fallen asleep, exactly?

Was it ten minutes ago?

Had I gone to sleep while I was standing up? (Oh, don't be so surprised, you already know how weird I am!)

I yawned again, and I stared blurrily at scoreboard.

Set 2: 25-18. Karasuno Neighborhood Association.

Aw, what a shame. I was rooting for Flying Squirrel!

I tried not to fall asleep again as I watched the volleyball people (ah, I'm too sleepy... can't remember.. faces.. names.. I need... my pillow...!) put everything up.

I yawned, "Manfo-kunnnnn!" I whined as I extended my hands out, "Helf meeei upppppt!"

To tell you the truth, I really didn't care who helped me up, heck, I was just too lazy to get up on my feet by myself.

Hey! Sleepy people need to be assisted, alright?

No one came to help me!

Rude!

I grumbled to myself, but I really couldn't complain; my mouth lost all connection to my brain when I got this tired.

My eyes felt like lead and they were closing again, and I tried so very hard to keep them open, but, but-!

...

"Hey.."

Who's that?

"Heyyy..."

Mango-kun? Maman? Hidekoyo?

"Giant lady!"

Wait, no that's not what any of their voices sound like, not at all!

Is someone shaking me?

It feels like someone's shaking me.

WHY!?

DON'T THEY KNOW I HAVE LOW BLOOD PRESSURE IN THE MORNING, GOSH DARN IT-!

My eyes snapped open as I smiled.

I hope it was creepy.

Whoever woke me up deserves to have nightmares about this!

"Eek! What's with that face!?"

Oh, was that Flying Squirrel?

I rubbed my eyes, yawning, then rubbed my eyes again as I stretched, groaning, then cracked my back. Ah, I do love cracking my back after I wake up...

"Man, that was a good nap!" I jumped up onto my feet, and grinned down at the sunshine haired midget in front of me. He kind of cowered, which made me kind of sad, but I shrugged it off as I patted his head.

"Heya! I saw your spikes! They were awesome! Like, 'Whoosh", then 'PA-POW!', and 'KA-BLAM!"

His cheeks flamed up when I patted his head, and it seemed to make him kind of mad, but he turned sheepish as soon as I complimented his spiking. It was cute, his skin matched his hair, and it kind of made me want to pinch his face off!

Mango-kun seemed amused. While he was being all amused and stuff, the rest of the Karasuno Volleyball Team, save Flying Squirrel, were all gathered in front of him and Advisor-san. Mango-kun gestured for me to come over, which I did, (the orange haired midget joined his team mates), and he looked at me, raising his eyebrow, "Amazon, you have anything to add about the match?"

I thought about it.

The Ultimate Mango probably had mentioned the receives, and the freak spike-duo, and maybe even to stretch after practice, because he had this thing about stretching. I don't really think I have anything to say...

I grinned, rocking steadily on my toes, "Nope! Nothing!"

He raised an eyebrow, as if this was new. Well, I know I'm an opinionated person, but, that doesn't me I have something to say about _everything_.

Jeez.

Mango-kun rubbed the back of his head, "Well, since the Amazon has nothing to say, I think this practice is pretty much over. What do you say, Koyoshiki?"

I shrugged, "Why are you asking me? I'm not the coach-and don't call me Koyoshiki. It's weird."

The boys on the team murmured about themselves, which, I really didn't pay attention to for the most part, but when Yuu waved his hand in front of my face, my snapped out of my day (night? Since it's dark outside?) dreaming.

"Yoshi-san, why are you here exactly?"

My eyes widened, and I nearly squealed. I raced over to where I had been sitting, and there was the black cloth wrapped over my medium sized bento box.

"Thanks a bunch, Yuu! I nearly forgot!"

Behind my back, I could hear the other guys on the team shoving Yuu around playfully, probably grinning, saying, "Who's that Nishinoya, your girlfriend? She just called you by your first name!"

I pranced back over, and undid the cloth, opening up the double layer lunch.

"Jagaimo mochi! Tons of it!" I grinned, and watched with slight amusement as they all drooled. It was obvious that they would be hungry after all that exercise, so I was kinda glad that we had had so much left over.

I held it forward "Well? Take what you want, that's why I brought it here," I paused, "But, make a line, would you? Teenage boys are savages, and I'd rather not get trampled."

...

When everyone there had two or three jagaimo mochi wrapped in handkerchief, I gazed down at my empty bento, and was throughly pleased.

I chatted with Meat Bun, who's name was Azumane Asahi, and laughed as he bit down on his second jagaimo, asking where I had gotten it from through a mouthful of food.

I shrugged, and then Mochigome also introduced himself to be Sugawara Koushi, also asking me where I had found such awesome food.

Pretty soon, I was acquainted with everyone there, ranging from Advisor-san (Takeda Ittetsu-sensei) and that pretty manager girl (Shimizu Kiyoko).

I talked to Sour Grapefruit Setter, who was Kageyama Tobio, and also to Flying Squirrel, named Hinata Shouyou.

Then there was Frowning Papaya (Tsukishima Kei).

Strawberry (Yamaguchi Tadashi), who had the cutest freckles ever!

I already knew who "Ennoshita" was, since Daichi had yelled his name during the part of the match I was paying attention to, but now, I know his first name, which is Chikara, therefore making him, Ennoshita Chikara.

Coconut (Narita Kazuhito), who had a buzz cut that reminded me of Ryuunosuke's hairdo...

And lastly, Cat Nip (Kinoshita Hisashi), who had these cool feline eyes, and was actually quite a funny guy!

...

I whistled nonchalantly as we all walked outside, flicking Daichi on the back of his head as he was closing up the gym.

He growled.

I ran.

"DAICHI'S GONNA KILL MEEEEEE! AHHHHHH!"

Everyone laughed at my pain.

It was very demoralizing.

...

After that, we all parted ways, and Mango-kun told me he would walk me home... I didn't argue, 'cause he was weirdly serious about that whole, "Walking A Young Girl Home", thing.

...

"I'm planning a training camp for them." Mango-kun chirped.

I continued to look forward.

"This concerns me how?"

He rubbed the back of his head, "Well, we both know your receives are pretty good, and that you know a whole lot about player health and well being. I was hoping you could cover the things I don't."

"Like be your Assistant Coach?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

I folded my arms as we neared my house.

"Are you sure about this? Mango-kun, I'm not a volleyball player. I'm a swimmer."

He snorted, "We both very well know you still turn on the T.V. every Friday to watch collage volleyball."

My cheeks didn't burn, and I felt no embarrassment, because there was really no shame in anyone knowing that I watched sports, like most normal people did.

"Yeah, I also watch American baseball in my free time. Do you see me coaching any baseball teams?"

"Koyoshiki..." He started, but I just sighed as we walked up to the door.

"I'll...think about it. Okay?"

"Practice match against Nekoma."

I stared.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Seriously."

...

"Text me the details. I'll be there."

We both waved goodbye, and as soo as I had closed the door, and was running up the stairs to get to my room.

...

The Crows V.S. The Cats, huh?

...

The legendary, "Battle At The Garbage Dump", eh?

...

I grinned.

...

 _This is gonna be too much fun!_

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

 **Okay, Um, I really want to know if you guys okay with this story.**

 **You know, making my character the sister of the Little Giant and all... It's just I thought it'd be the perfect kind of irony-to have a super giant girl related to a super tiny guy, you know?**

 **Anyway, I have more details about all this sibling stuff, so if you would just hang around, all will be revealed!**

 **Thank You For Reading,**

 **Mellow-chan**


	5. Kora! Training Camp: Part Uno!

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 **Pairings:**

 _Undecided_

 _._

 _.._

 _..._

* * *

 _..._

 _.._

 _._

 **KORAAAAAAAAAAA!**

 **Training Camp!**

 **Part UNO!**

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...

* * *

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..

.

I heard my phone start to make these really weird noises as 4:30 in the morning, and when I had turned over in my bed to see what the heck was going on, I recognized the caller ID.

It's official.

Mango-kun hates me. Waking me up just after 4 o'clock... He definitely hates me to his very core.

I groaned.

This sucks.

This week was supposed to be apart summer vacation to!

I rolled out of bed and threw on some random sweats. Then some some flip flops. I grabbed the bag with a weeks worth of clothes that I had prepared the following night, as per Mango-kun's orders.

Still... 30 minutes after 4 o'freaking o'clock...

"I... Am... Going to kill him... Violently."

I stumbled down stairs, and just before I decided to head out, I left a quick note full of promises to gently murder Mango-kun.

...

I quickly ran over to "meeting place" Mango-kun had set up.

A.K.A-The Karasuno Volleyball Gym.

...

Mango-kun was standing in the middle of the empty court, as if it brought back some sort of sappy nostalgic feeling.

What a girl!

I clapped my hand together, smiling.

"4:30 in the morning, _Man-go-kun~_?"

He _shrugged._ As if my sleep meant nothing! He merely _shrugged_!

"We need to go over the training regimen."

I rubbed my temples, "Didn't we make the training regimen like, last week? Why on Earth do we need to go over it _again_ exactly?"

Mango-kun glanced at the four papers that went over each day of camp and cringed, "I finally realized some of this stuff is _way_ too intense for kids who've never done in before."

I shuffled over to him to look at the paper as well, but it didn't seem that odd to me...

He pointed at the stretching routine I had put together and knitted his eyebrows together, "Like, what the he-"

"Language!"

"-ck is a 'Pigeon', 'Split Leg stretch', "R-Royal Dancer', and-" He squinted, "S-S-Supermodel? What _are_ all these for!?"

I sighed.

And men wonder why they're not flexible!

"Royal Dancer's for balance and flexibility. Supermodel basically loosens your sides up, and gives you a wider range of twisting motion. Spit Leg stretches your calves. Pigeon get's your blood pumping more efficiently, and stretches your hips and hamstrings."

Mango-kun nodded. "Yeah, sounds great, but how do you _do_ all of them exactly?"

...

"COULDN'T YOU HAVE CALLED ME YESTERDAY AFTERNOON IF YOU HAD QUESTIONS!?"

...

I growled as I stalked away from the gym, glaring at the barely risen sun, then glaring at some random bush that happened to just be in my line of vision.

That ridiculous coach made me show him every. single. poses. AT 5 IN THE MORNING!

Then, when he had found my work sufficent, he was all like, "Okay, now that I'm done with you, could you go clean up the old dorms the team will be staying in? It's been vacant, and there's dust _everywhere_. Oh, and can you get groceries? I haven't made _any_ of the meal plans."

I threw my hands up, screaming, "GAHHHH!"

Someone opened their window and threw a shoe at me.

"SHUT UP, PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!"

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

I slaved away, making that stupid house spotless. There were cracks and such from age, but there was nothing I could do about those. I made sure all the layers of dust were swept clean, and all the gunk in the bathrooms and kitchen were gone.

It took _forever._ Like, _three hours_.

I was gonna kill Mango-kun to death!

I glanced at the clock in the kitchen, and gagged.

"Darn it! The groceries!" I jogged from the kitchen to the front door, and was just about to open it when...

Pat.

Pat. Pat.

Pat.

The look of pure horror spread across my face as I patted each pocket on my person. That sense of pure dread, if you've ever had it, of missing something so vital to your existence is so horrible that I was almost positive I was about to faint.

"MY WALLET!"

Pat.

"Oh, nope, in my back pocket. We're good."

I hummed as I started to the grocery store, a small cloth bag in hand to save myself the trouble of throwing away all those plastic ones when I would get back to the dorms.

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

First, let me establish that I have never held so much food _in my entire life._

Honestly, when I asked one of the employees how much food I would need to feed 16 people for 4 days, I didn't think they would escort me to the bulk section!

Goodness!

All this food was a serious drag to carry, and I just knew it was gonna be an even more serious drag to cook all this freaking food.

Blah.

Grr.

I better get a refund from Mango-kun for all that money I spent.

I glances at all the food, and cringed.

Darn.

Do we even have pots at that run down dorm house?

...

I was soooo happy that I had brought my apron in my duffle bag.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have even started dinner if I hadn't brought it, because it's just plain sacrilege to cook without my precious rainbow apron. Seriously.

SACRILEGE!

Okay, back to the dinner topic thingy, well, you see, I had decided to go with the most generic training camp food I could think of-curry.

Not just any kind of curry though! It was my maternal grandmother's, "Super Top Secret Mouth-Watering Sweet Meat Curry"!

Be amazed! Marvel at my culinary skills in awe!

 _Bang!_

"AIE!"

So, maybe I shouldn't swing pots around while I'm having an inner monologue...

...

I had just started making the roux for my curry when I heard the door to the front open.

I didn't go to investigate or anything like that, because, if I left my roux, in might burn, and then I'd kill someone. I hummed, and carefully stirred the roux as I admired the browning color of the flour, and grinned at the peanut-butter look of it. Shame it didn't taste anything like peanut-butter. Actually, it just tasted like really weird, bland paste.

That would change when I added the spices! MWAHAHA!

I glanced over my shoulder to see Takeda-sensei and Kiyoko-chan staring at me as if I were crazy.

"Hiya!" I chirped, "Do you mind setting the table then helping me out a bit in the kitchen? I've been dying for a break!"

The two glanced at each other, then nodded hesitantly as they went to work.

I just hummed over my thickening roux, and squealed in delight as it turned another shade of amazing brown. It wasn't anywhere close to being down, and since it was such a large portion, it would take at least 50 minutes to cook properly, which meant 50 minutes of non-stop stirring, but I would get the other two to boil the vegetables while I cared for my roux.

I stared to whistle a little, and when I had just started enjoying myself-

"Um, Oozaki-san, the table's done, and may I ask what your doing?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Takeda-sensei decided, "Hey, let's scare Yoshi out of her skin, m'kay?", but I managed to regain my composure before I knocking over anything.

"Jeez, Takeda-sensei, don't scare me like that! -And you don't know what this is?"

He shook his head, and Kiyoko-chan, who seemed curious to begin with, also drifted over.

"Well, I'm make roux."

"Roux?" They both asked. This caused them to look at each other in surprise, which I thought was funny, and when people think stuff's funny, well, they laugh!

"It's for my curry. More specifically, it's the base of my curry, the life of my curry," I paused, then, suddenly filled with uncontainable passion, and the urge to fling my roux covered spoon around-"IT IS MY CURRY."

Both of them jumped and I laughed again.

"Speaking of which, do you guys mind boiling the ingredients over there? I've already got them prepped and everything, and the water's in the pot, so just throw it in and light the fire!"

...

Kiyoko-chan nodded, and Takeda-sensei just looked lost, but I continued to happily stir my roux.

...

I glanced at the clock, at the finished pot of curry, then at the rice, and I nodded pleasantly.

I love cooking!

So much!

"Hey," I addressed my two helpers at they sat at the table, drained for some reason or another, as I took off my apron, "I'm going for a run, can you hold down the fort while I'm gone?"

Honestly, I don't even know why I asked, 'cause when I had finished that statement, I was already out the door!

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

I would like to inform you that my run merely consisted of me getting sweaty and gross, and really needing to take a shower, and probably some other details I'd rather not get into.

All I can say is:

Running. Ew. Gross. I hate it. This is why I'm a swimmer.

Blah.

...

"Tadaima!" I called out casually with a sweaty towel around my neck. I walked into the kitchen without a care in the world, and ignored the stared the volleyball boys were giving me.

I was tired, and there was no way some weird looks were going to stop me from devouring my body weight in curry! No way!

I grinned at Kiyoko-chan as she handed me a plate.

"How was your run?" She inquired with a smile, and I patted my face with the towel.

"Terrible!" I replied with a cheery grin of my own as I made my way to the fairly large table all the guys were sitting at. I plotted right down next to Daichi and happily munched on my curry like a normal vacuum cleaner would. Everything was cool. Totally chill-lax.

...

That Tsukishima Kei character gave me a blank look as he gazed at me in distaste.

"What the he-"

"Language!" I warned through a mouthful of food.

"-ck are you doing here?"

"Well," I grinned as I swallowed a mouthful of curry, and licked my lips, "I'm just enjoying the food I made. Is that so bad?"

Yuu and Ryuunosuke stared at me, then the curry, then at me again, then to Kiyoko-chan, then a full on _waterfall_ casually sprung out of their eyeballs.

I stared.

Was this some sort of natural phenomenon? Was this even possible? Should I call the Black Ops?

The rest of the team was staring at me.

"What?"

Grapefruit, or, rather, Tobio grunted, "Hn."

Shouyou's mouth hung open.

Kei looked uninterested again.

Ko-

Wait, my curry's calling me, I must eat it-!

"The Amazon's here because she fully intends to make the rest of your stay here a living he-"

"LAN-GU-AGE! Geez, learn some decency, you foul mouthed lot of volleyball obsessed men! Oh, not you though, Takeda-sensei."

Mango-kun scratched the top of his head thoughtfully, "Heron hole?"

...

Really, he pulled that thoughtful head scratch, and he can't even come up with a good substitution?

Goodness, what am I going to do with him, really?

...

"When did I say I was gonna do that? I never said that-HEY! I STILL HAVE TO MURDER YOU FOR WAKING ME UP AT 4:30 YOU MONGREL!"

...

Mango-kun fleed the room, with a very angry moi hot on his tail.

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

After the boys had their baths and I had finished throughly punishing the Blonde Porcupine for his earlier actions, Mango-kun called everyone in for a nice, good ole group chat.

He thwaped my shoulder and grinned as I stood in front of the large kitchen table.

"Alright guys, this is the new assistant coach, Oozaki Koyoshiki. Treat her kindly."

"Hai~!"

It appears that I am the subject of said group chat.

I saluted, then bowed, and sat in a random chair at the table, next to Koushi and Ryuu, completely surrounded by boys, all of them leaning forward at staring at me.

Weird.

"Yoshi-san," Yuu chirped, "I didn't know you liked volleyball."

Ryuu nodded, "Yeah, yeah, Noya-san's right, we always would invite you, but you always said no. What's up with that?

"I told you I was busy. When I'm busy, I'm busy. Ask Daichi where I am if you're so curious about my private life."

All heads turned to poor Daichi as he smiled wearily. Aw man, maybe I shouldn't have done that. Daichi might seek revenge later, and a vindictive Daichi is a scary Daichi.

"Oozaki-san's family runs a mochi shop in town, and my mom happens to like the anko mochi-"

"She likes the ume mochi too! Don't forget that, Aho-ichi!"

Daichi twitched, but managed to calmly continue, which sorta impressed me, so I shut up, "-and I like the shio mochi, nothing fancy really."

I nodded as I casually ran my fingers through my boyish hair. "Yeah, that's that. Anything else you boys wanna know?"

...

Shouyou's hand flung up, "HOW TALL ARE YOU?!"

"Um, 184.6 cm. Well, a 185 cm if you guys wanna round."

The Grapefruit's face went sour.

"Taller than me..."

With a snort, I replied, "I'm taller than a lot of people. Not as dandy as you would think."

Sugawara Koushi perked up, "Well, have you played volleyball before? Any other sports?"

I cringed, "Swim. Used to play volleyball for fun. Played softball and baseball competitively. Tried out some gymnastics."

Koushi smiled, "Well, that's quite the resume. Why are you coaching us all of a sud-?"

Mango-kun and I rocketed out of our chairs, _"NEKOMA MUST BE DESTROYED, YOU INSOLENT CHILD!"_

Every player in the room held their hands up in surrender, and I stifled a grin.

...

I love scaring people!

...

"Anyway, just come to me or Mango-kun for advice when you need it. That's what we're hear for."

...

 _"_ Why do you call him, 'Mango-kun'?"

"Well, it's better than, 'Blonde Porcupine, right?"

...

"Point taken."

...

They asked me a bunch of other questions like:

"What's your favorite food?"

 _Gumbo._

"What's that?!"

 _It's an American food._

"Oh, are you American?"

 _Yeah, half._

"What! Half-American? How cool!"

 _Not really. Your Japanese aren't you? I just happened to American as well._

"What do you like to do in you free time?"

 _Old Lady stuff._

"What?"

 _Don't ask._

 _..._

As I walked up to the second floor to get to the room I was going to be staying in, Ryuunosuke bounded up behind me, and tapped my shoulder. I quickly turned around to look at him, and I could see his face scrunch up for some weird reason. He was looking at me, so I looked down to examine myself, and didn't see any problems with my old NNY's T-shirt, or my black pajama shorts. I raised my hand to touch my head and realized that I didn't have anything to hold my hair back.

Then, his eyes nearly popped out of his head once he discovered what looked different besides my hairdo...

...

"GLASSES!?"

I slammed my hand of his mouth, and quickly tore my thick, nerdy glasses off of my face.

"If you tell _anyone_ , I will personally spike a basketball into your face."

Ryuu gulped.

I glared.

He fiddled with his hands, and looked sorta nervously as he opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish.

...

"Well, just spit it out already, Ryuu! What do ya want?"

...

"Yoshi-san, can I have your phone number?!"

...

I stared at him for a moment, then nodded, raising my eyebrow. Didn't he know he couldn't just asked Mango-kun for my cell? " Yeah, Ryuu. Hold on a sec, lemme write it down for you..."

...

Out of nowhere Nishinoya (who mysteriously grew shorter?), popped out of nowhere (I'm so glad I took off my glasses when I did) as I scribbled out my number on the back of a grocery receipt I had gotten from the shopping earlier today.

"Ryuu, you'd better share that with me!"

"Of course, Noya-san!"

...

They both frocklied like lambs as I wrote, and soon, it was just too much for poor me to bear!

...

 _"You two, shut up. You're getting on my nerves!"_


	6. Kora! Training Camp: Part Dos!

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 **Pairings:**

 _Undecided_

 _._

 _.._

 _..._

* * *

 _..._

 _.._

 _._

 **KORAAAAAAAAAA!**

 **Training Camp!**

 **Part DOS!**

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

"Jugoya-san's makin' mochi on the moon! Pettanko, pettanko, petta-petta-pettanko! Okkoneta, okkoneta, okkone-okkone-okkoneta! Tottsuita, tottsuita, tottsui-tottsi-tottsuita! Shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan, shan!"

...

I have to say, making breakfast turned out to be much more enjoyable than I thought it would.

Interesting daily fact about Oozaki Koyoshiki!: She likes making food for people in the morning, when she has no choice, rather than at night, when she would like to be sleeping.

Yeah, I know I'm talking in the third person. Don't judge!

I carefully made (my, what, third? Fourth?) tamagoyaki in this weird square shape pan that was apparently just for tamagoyaki. I thought it was fishy, but Kiyoko had brought it over yesterday and demanded I use it, so, here I am, making tamagoyaki in this funny looking pan. As soon as I had finished this last tamagoyaki roll, I put all the food on the table, feeling very pleased with myself.

There was food. So much food. I want to eat it all.

I hastily wiped drool from my mouth, looking around.

...

Good!

No one had seen the drool fest!

...

It didn't take long for a bunch of zombies to come floating into the kitchen and helping themselves to breakfast. The food literally disappeared in front of my eyes, and I had to remind Tobio and Shouyou to slow down like, five times, because they kept choking on their food.

I sat on the kitchen counter, happily watching my food be eaten with enthusiasm, and I actually thought for _one second_ that I would finally have a decent, enjoyable morning.

...

"Koyoshiki-san, what's up with that weird apron? Did you find it in a cabinet or something?"

...

I froze.

I slowly, slowly, mind you, slide myself off the counter, and stalked over to a certain Kageyama Tobio's chair.

I pointed my long, intimidating (at least, I hope it looks intimidating, otherwise this would be kind of embarrassing...) finger right at the face of the man who dared insult the rainbow-colored stickers on my wonderful, sacred white smock. "You evil little grapefruit; no one insults my apron! You'd better watch out, 'cause there's a two-scoop waffle cone of misery topped with pain coming your way, you freakoid biscotti biscuit!"

I poked his chest once, twice, then three times!

HE'S OUT FOLKS!

...

All the guys stared at me, then at my apron, and I made sure to put an extra effort into my glare at whoever decided to even _think_ about looking at me.

"Idiots," I muttered as I stomped out of the room and up the stairs.

...

"Idiots," I repeated as I tore off my pajamas and put on some orange shorts, a white beater, a black bandana, and some white Converse. I snatched up a packpack I had prepared for today as I stormed down the stairs.

...

"IDIOTS!" I shrieked as I slammed the door to the Dorm House in order to make my way to the gym.

...

I grumbled as I sat outside the gym door.

"They're idiots. All of them."

...

You see, I kinda forgot I don't have a key... So, yeah...

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

Daichi was the wonderful person that brought the key to my salvation. When I saw him, it was like seeing Saint Peter with the Keys of the Kingdom in his hand, and made me infinitely happier than I was five seconds ago.

"DAICHI! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW YOU HAVE NO IDEA!"

Thus, I promptly pounced on Daichi in front of all of his friends and hung off him like orangutang would a very small bush.

Daichi didn't seem to mind, because all he did was continue to approach the gym door, unlocked it, walked in, and vainly attempted to shake me off. All the other peeps, you know, Mango-kun, Kiyoko, and Takeda-sensei, and the rest of the volleyball crew stared. They'd been doing that a lot lately...

Am I just too awesome for them to handle!?

...

"Oozaki-san, can you please get off me?"

"Why, my dearest darling Daichi~?"

Alliteration, folks, it's a wonderful thing.

"Because I need to open the storage room, and it's all the way across the gym, and you're _heavy_."

...

I whimpered as I let go, pouting as Daichi scampered off.

I wiped a nonexistent tear from my eye, "Mango-kun, they grow up so fast!"

He patted my shoulder.

"Yeah, I know Amazon. Could you go set up the net poles?"

...

I sulked off to the storage room to collect the big (heavy) metal (heavy) poles (HEAVY) that were used to set up the volleyball net.

"Could you put the padding on too?"

"Hey! Just 'cause I'm the assistant coach doesn't mean you can slack off you lazy Mango!"

It seems my words take no affect, because he's just standing there.

Figuratively picking his nose.

...

When the boys and I had set everything up, and gotten all the equipment ready, I took a seat next to a wall as I watched their practice.

As they went through the receiving and spiking drills, I religiously took as many notes as I could about each player's form, strength, and ability. I scrutinized the fastest ways to improving the receiving percentage for each boy, taking in the success rate of how Mango-kun coached, and thinking over if any of them needed a bit of extra help.

Yeah. Yoshi-chan can be serious.

Stare in awe!

...

Toss and Spike practice came after that, and it didn't take too terribly long for me to come to the conclusion that while Karasuno had immense offensive power, their defense, with a few exceptions, just sucked. I massaged my forehead as I saw Shouyou go in for another enthusiastic spike.

...

If only he could be that enthusiastic about freaking learning how to receive!

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

After Mango-kun sent the guys out for a run, and after he talked to Takeda-sensei about something that I have no knowledge of 'cause I'm not an eavesdropper, he quickly scurried over to me and my notebook, peering over my shoulder like a distressed kindergartener.

"So, what's the damage?"

I gave him a sharp look, and sighed, "Nothing you probably don't already know. Stamina's lacking for a few of them, but that'll be good after a few months practice." I bit the edge of my pencil eraser in nervousness as I glanced down at the pages of paper in from of me.

"About the spikers, I think you need to take them to my sister for their balance and jumping. It worries me when they get bad starts and slip when they land, and I'm not an expert on that sort of stuff so I think calling Hidekoyo for this would be the best course of action to take." After a beat, I continued, "Granted, we don't _have_ to call her. Over time, they would definitely all learn how to do this all themselves, it's just that..."

Mango-kun gave me an amused look.

"Don't wanna take any chances?"

With a nod, I neatly wrote 'Ask Hide to come to one of the volleyball practices in a couple of weeks' on a blue sticky note, and smacked in onto the first page of my notebook.

"Exactly."

As he glanced over his shoulder to see Kiyoko and Takeda-sensei shagging volleyballs, Mango-kun stretched his arms out while saying, "Do you think she'll be able to come tomorrow or the next day?"

"Nah," I zipped open my backpack and hastily got some stick labelers out out the backpack I had brought with me, "Maman and her left yesterday afternoon for a five day gymnastic's competition in Tokyo. It overlaps with the training camp, so she wouldn't be able to come even if she wanted to."

Mango-kun, 'Ohhh'ed, and crouched down next to me.

"About the match-"

"If this is about positions, then you know as well as I do that all you need to do is go with your gut."

...

Mango-kun dropped the subject in favor of jogging off to help out with shagging the balls.

I sighed as I looked over my notes and the orderly chaos of rainbow colored labelers sticking out from the top.

...

The boys came back sweaty and disgusting and ew.

I casually tossed each of them a small shoulder towel to dry themselves off, and Kiyoko handed out water bottles. Kiyoko's so nice. It makes me wonder why she chose to be the manager of such a rowdy group. I whistled to myself as I also accepted a water from Kiyoko, just for the heck of it, and then proceeded to gulp it down.

"Alright, kids! We'll have another receiving session, stop for lunch, then have a few hours of running and individual practice!" Mango-kun slammed his hands together, and the guys scattered like ants.

I looked up at the ceiling as I imagined a bunch of tiny little ants with the comically huge faces of each team member.

I snorted.

What? It was kinda funny, okay?

...

I was about to take a seat for some more notes before Mango-kun grabbed my arm, and dragged me into the front of the line the boys had made for their receiving practice.

He stared me straight in the eye and smiled pleasantly.

"Well, Amazon, you wouldn't mind demonstrating for us all would you?"

I blinked owlishly. "Huh?"

"Well, I was thinking, since most of these kids know almost nothing of what a real Ukai-style receive looks like, I was thinking that you could show them since you've faced the Old Man's wrath like the rest of us oldies."

"Wait, wait-first of all, how is the way Ukai-jii-chan teaches receives different than how any other coach teaches receives, and second of all, if you want them to see someone Ukai-jii-chan's taught in action, why don't you show them, huh, Mango-kun?"

"You've faced his torture since you were like, eight. Doesn't that mean you have what is it now?" He paused to do the math in his head for some reason, "Almost five more years of volleyball experience with that old fart than me? That and your brother-"

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, HEYYY!"

Okay, so look, not that I have anything against my brother, or anything like that, but I'd rather not have a bunch a volleyball idiots know about the, "Little Giant", being my brother and all. I'm completely sick and tired of having a bunch of expectations dumped on me because of my freaking relatives, and that's that. It's like being related to someone that's a total stud at something automatically means you have to be just as good or better!

It's irritating, and I'd rather not have all these guys making unnecessary assumptions about my skill level, or have them think I'm somehow a freaking bird like my younger older brother.

...

I pointed at Mango-kun, slightly embarrassed by all the attention on me, but somehow, I managed to keep myself sorta composed.

"H-Hey, now that's d-d-different a-and, u-u-uh... Y-Y-YOU K-KNOW WHAT J-JUST SPIKE T-THE BALL!"

...

Well, I did say _sorta_ , didn't I?

...

I stood in the middle of the court, everyone's eyes on me.

Bleh.

With a few quick readjustments, and with slightly bent knees, I sharply nodded at Mango-kun.

He grinned from his super tall stool raised his hand to spike that volleyball.

I narrowed my eyes, and he threw the ball up.

...

I was already moving as soon as his hand was nearly touching the ball, and with a few quick strides and and outstretched right hand, I skillfully (I think? Was it skillful? I dunno really...) sent the ball bouncing straight up into the air. Even as I was still admiring my receive, I was well aware that I was free falling, and to prevent my face from becoming firmly acquainted with the floor, I quickly pulled my hands downward and did a smooth (at least, I think it was smooth. I haven't done this in like two years!) flying fall.

...

I dusted myself off, wiggling uncomfortably as I gently pulled on my denim shorts.

I glanced in the teams' direction, stepping backwards while Yuu scuttled in front of me, his eyes shining.

"Yoshi-san, That Was The Most Awesome Thing I've Seen All Day!"

Seriously, how does he get those capitals in his sentences?! I'd really like to know!

"Um, uh, thanks. I think."

As the boy's stared at me, jaws agape, for reason I don't really know, I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.

...

Mango-kun clapped his hands, "Okay guys, that was the famous Ukai-style receive! Remember it! After the Nekoma game, the Amazon's gonna teach all of you how to do it!"

...

"WHAT! You never said anything about that you dumb piece of fruit!"

.

..

...

* * *

...

..

.

Well, if you must know about the next two days, all I have to say about them is that they were very repetitive, because I didn't attend the camp part of it.

The third day was mostly reviewing the notes I had taken on the second day and calling up Ukai-jii-chan for advice and such since Mango-kun was a jerk and didn't like his grandpa as much as I did. I asked Ukai-jii about training regimens for the blockers, since I sort of thought the whole blocking thing was lacking in the Karasuno arson, and also a little about trust drills and stuff like that. Ukai-jii was happy to help, and it sort of made my whole day easier, which I was ecstatic about.

Wow, I wrote for like a whole paragraph there.

I never do that!

Yay!

...

The fourth day was awful.

I washed and rewashed and re-rewashed these nasty, nasty old Karasuno uniforms I had been given to by Takeda-sensei, over and over again so that the wouldn't stink anymore. On top of washing them, I also had to sew up all the holes in them all, which was kind of irritating. It took forever. Seriously, I didn't know it was such a hassle to clean sports jerseys. It sorta made me made that previous owners of all these uniforms had never even thought of washing them before they gave them back. Blek, disgusting...

Then, after all that misery, I had to _fold all of them_.

If you don't have any experience with folding clothes, let me tell you that it is the very bane of my existence. I wish I could blow up the concept of folding clothes with a bomb then bury the smoldering ashes in Chernobyl, Russia, just so that it can be subjected to radiactive decay and never be seen on the face of the Earth ever again.

Seriously, just _thinking_ about folding clothes is giving me a head ache so Imma stop now...

My only relief was when Kiyoko came and took them away so that the guys would have there uniforms for the match.

"Good riddance!" I had said as she walked out the door with an amused smile.

...

Am I that amusing? Really.

...

All I was really waiting for was that Battle at the Garbage Dump. I wanted to see it after four years of not doing anything volleyball related.

I wannaaaaa seeeeee itttttt!

So, when the time came for us to go mousy on down to the Karasuno Sougou Sports Park, so we could go battle with some cats, I was wayyy to eager to get a move on!

...

I'm so excited you have no freaking idea! It's like running down the stairs Christmas day, already knowing what you're gonna get, but you just love it so much, you really don't care!

Grr!

GAHHHHHH!

SO AWESOME!

I GET TO SEE NEKO-JII-CHAN AGAIN AND SEE AN AGE OLD RIVALY AT IT'S BEST!

SO AWESOME!

TOO AWESOME!

"AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!" I shrieked.

"SHUT UP, YOU'RE TOO LOUD!"

Darn it.

...

Tsukishima, I discovered, was not a morning person. Good to know.

That, and he likes throwing his shoes into loud people's faces.


	7. The Neko-Karasu Reunion! Heck Yeah!

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 _ **Pairings:**_

 _Undecided_

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 **The Neko-Karasu Reunion!**

 **Heck Yeah!**

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I skipped past Mango-kun as we approached the gate, and suddenly, this overpowering smell of lavender flooded my nose.

It was just so awful, all that smell suddenly coming into my nose at one time... So awful that I literally doubled over, gagging, and had a mini-heart attack as I pinched my nose.

I actually quiet like the smell of lavender, but seriously, I really, really hate this sort of burn-your-nostrils-with-this-overpowering-stench thing. It makes my head spin, and me wanna puke, and it's just an all around negative experience.

Trying not to throw up breakfast, I shuffled as far away from Mango-kun as possible, glaring.

He glanced at me, obviously noticing the action, and frowned.

"What?"

I growled, crinkling my nose up as I huffed out, "You reek of lavender! You smelled better when you stank of tobacco; at least then you smelled like my Obaa-chan!"

His face turned red as he lunged towards me, and I squealed as he did because, _oh my goodness he smells like a bottle of massaging oil threw up on him!_

"You brat! I do not!"

"Liar! You totally do! You reek! Reek I say!"

Mango-kun chased me around the court-yard, then into the building, so I really didn't get to see the Nekoman team, which means I don't get to scare a bunch of innocent children, which is totally not fun, which means I really want to beat a certain lavender reeking volleyball coach up.

Does he not understand my absolute obsession of scaring people?

...

I watched as Daichi and the Nekoma captain shook hands cautiously, smiling at each other with the same look on both their faces...

'I've gotta watch out. This guy seems cunning.'

I snorted at the sight, and then turned my attention to Mango-kun (who I was keeping a safe distance from), and the assistant coach of the other team.

Seems like they know each other from their high school days, and I perked my ears up at their conversation as they shook hands and grinned at each other. 'Eternal Benchwarmers', they said... I stifled a laugh rocking on my toes and heels holding on tightly to the my backpack strapes, and as the other coach leaned to the side, I vaguely wondered what I was going to eat for lunch...

"Hey, kid, are you playing? Or are you injured?"

I looked around, trying to see who he was addressing, but I really couldn't see anyone who fit the bill. I'm pretty positive he wasn't address Takeda-sensei... So who was he talking to?

Wait...

With a shaky hand, I reluctantly pointed at myself, tilting my head as if to say, 'Hold up, you mean me?"

The coach gave me this strange look, and he nodded, "Well, duh. Are you playing? Or are you injured?"

My face burned.

Well, okay then.

"I-I'm not on the team..."

Darn it. I stuttered.

Coach What-ever-his-name-is raised an eyebrow, "Then what are you-"

I think Mango-kun glared at him, because he shut his mouth abruptly, and this gave me the perfect chance to make my quick escape to the bleachers.

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But seriously, why would a girl be on the boy's volleyball team?

Really?

I puffed my cheeks out widely as I slouched up against the side wall, opposite of the bleachers.

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The dear children were happily getting acquainted as I whistled to myself, quietly making profiles for each the players and the two coaches on Nekoma and creepy stalker stuff like that, you know, the usual.

I turned a page, just about to start making the profile for the Yamamoto character that reminded me sorely of Tanaka, when I had my notebook snatched right out of my hands!

Since this made me kinda mad, it wasn't a mystery as to why I snapped my head up, to glare at the person, but I kinda had to stop when I saw just who it was exactly.

"Neko-jii-chan!" I squealed loudly (like a squirrel high on coffee, mind you) as I jumped up to my feet, giving the old coot a gentle hug (because, you know, old people have fragile bones) and then proceeded to bounce up and down, rattling off things I had done since I had last saw him, and that Ukai-jii-chan told me to tell Neko-jii-chan that he should slip a hip disk so they could both be old and injured together and stuff.

Neko-jii laughed while patting my shoulder, his wrinkly face crinkling up as he did, "Woah, woah, calm down tall stuff, the boys are staring at you like you're crazy!"

"That's doesn't matter Neko-jii-chan! We both know I'm already clinically insane!"

Jii-chan gave me this funny look, and ordered me to stop jumping so he could take me to a hospital, but I politely refused, saying that the purple bunny flying around his head was telling me to go find Neverland instead.

Then he started laughing, and I don't know it if was because he had gotten that I had been joking around, or he'd finally lost it.

I'm just gonna assume he got the joke.

He grinned at me. It was a sly grin, one that was making me really uncomfortable.

"Girl, you look like a boy with the clothes you have on. Has anybody questioned your gender lately?"

"You weird old coot! I assure you, I look very much _female_!"

(I really don't look like a guy... Do I? I mean, just 'cause I have short hair, no boobs, olive skin, and wear athletic clothes doesn't mean I look like a guy, right? I mean, my eye lashes are feminine, right!? JUST BECAUSE I LOOK LIKE MY DAD DOESN'T MEAN I LOOK LIKE A BOY, GOSH DARN IT!)

"Really, if you hadn't told anyone you were a girl, I'm sure you could've slipped your way into the match. You and the libero would have to take turns though~"

Jeez! He said that super loudly! I really how no one heard that (especially Yuu) because some people (Yuu!) are super annoying (YUU!) when they hear the term 'liebro' (Y-U-U!).

"You geezer," I muttered through gritted teeth, "They didn't even _know_ I was a _libero_!"

The old man rubbed his chin, "Really now...?"

I gave him an unamused look.

"Yeah. Really."

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"YOSHI-SAN!"

Freaking French Toast Fluffing Fudge of Fred!

"AHHHHH! There's a midget on the loose run for you lives!"

I frantically looked around for someone taller than me.

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Option 1- Tall captain of the Nekoma team who I seriously don't know!

Option 2- Tsukki!

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"HOTARU-CHAN, SAVE ME!"

In my desperation, I ended up jumping on Tsukishima's back while he was drinking water, which naturally caused him to do a spit-take, which consequently resulted in his knees buckling.

Then, instead of face planting unto the very friendly Nekoma gym floor, he wobbled a bit, then groaned as I clung onto him like a monkey to a tree.

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I feel kinda bad.

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Wait, wait, no, that's not guilt, I'm just fearing for my life right now. Not definitely not guilty.

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"Would..." Tsukishima gruffly began, his face no where near pleasant as I listen attentively, "You. Get. Off. Of. Me. You. Oaf."

"Um, since I kinda of like living, no thanks."

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Tsukki slapped his hand against his thigh, which I jumped at sorta, because his hands are big, and loud, "I wasn't _asking_."

"Oh, I know," Came my answer with a peppy chirp.

Tsukishima turned his head around a bit, his hands dangling loosely at his side. Tsukishima's eyes were looking straight back a me with this blank (but super scary) look, "Do you, now?"

"Yeah!" I nodded frantically, with a nervous smile as I shifted from monkey mode to a regular piggy back style position,"-And I think also this is the longest conversation we've ever had! Hotaru-chan, is this a new hair style? It looks so good on you!"

...

Okay maybe moving wasn't the best thing to do, because I'm pretty sure I just broke Tsukishima's back.

"Dear God, I swear, I'm going to kill you, Oozaki! Violently!" His freakishly long arms reached backwards, clutching at my shirt, which in turn made me wiggle about to stay out of his reach.

He glared at me.

Schnitzel.

I gulped, wondering what medieval torturing technique he would use to cause me the most amount of pain.

"H-H-Ha ha ha! I-I wouldn't e-e-expect a-anything less f-from Hotaru-chan!"

We stared at each other for a moment, which gave me some time to prepare a will in my mind.

"I'm totally dead, aren't I, Hotaru-chan?"

Smack!

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Tsukki face palmed.

He must do that a lot...

"Jesus..."

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"A-Ah, Tsukishima, Oozaki-san, we need to start the match-"

I jumped off his back, not bothering to even spare a second to look at the downright murderous Tsukishima, and ran as fast as I could, right to the wall, where I made my escape.

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When the game began, I was just sitting there, patting my chest, muttering the mantra of, "You're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive you're alive-"

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Somehow, I had managed to snap out of my brush with death, and I watched the practice match, scribbling notes as Nekoma stood flabbergasted at the freak-quick the first-year duo unleashed as soon as the game had started.

I grinned, throughly smug at their shock.

Okay, so while I realize that the first-year quick is certainly not going to working for this whole game, I also realize that this match is going to be extremely entertaining, and might even provide me with some invaluable information on the Nekoma team, so I figure I can be a little smug while the Cats are still a little shell-shocked.

I peered toward the game, flipping to the page of the Nekoma libero, quickly taking note of his skill, then turning to the very first page of my new "Info on Opponents" Notebook, and making sure to write about the well connected sensation the Nekoma team gave off. I also jotted down info on their skilled receives, and made sure there was ample room for the Nekoma setter.

With a sly smile, I put my pencil right next crook of where my jaw met my ear, knowing that this match would very much satisfy my curiosity of the newest generation of Nekoma.

"What's with that smile? It's creepy."

...

As I choked on my own spit, I glared at Mango-kun, very, very unhappy with the sudden conversation.

"You know what, you need to shut your face. I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart, so I expect a lil' more appreciation!"

He made this 'phhhttt' sound that just epitomized cheekiness, and I threw a volleyball at his face.

"How do like that Mr. Phhhhttt!?"

"Why you-!"

With an exasperated sigh, and a loud 'tsk' I very eloquently asked:

"What do you want!? You're irritating!"

"Would you chill out! Jeez, having a civil conversation with you is like trying to talk to a donkey!"

I felt my eye twitch.

"You rude son of a gun-! Just tell me what the heck you want already!"

"I will! Stop using exclamation marks!"

"No! _You_ stop using exclamation marks!"

"No! _You_ -"

"Both of you annoying children-shut up!"

...

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, "Okay, seems Neko-jii-chan has had enough of our shouting match..."

Mango-kun nodded, "Yeah..."

"What did you want again?"

"For you to stop being antisocial and come cheer with the rest of the team. -And for you to quit with the creepy faces. They're scaring everyone."

With sudden fatigue, I picked myself off of the floor, and wearily made my way to where everyone else was sitting. After a quiet, "Osu," I plopped down on the bench there, and resumed my note taking.

Chikara turned leaned over my shoulder, promptly scaring the living daylights out of me as my pencil went 'kacrk-kacrk-scrk'!

"What are you writing?"

Glancing backwards, I scooted over on the bench a bit, so he could see the notebook better, "Well, this is a page on their captain... Kuroo Testurou, was it?" I flipped the page, "This one's on their vice-captain, and #2, Nubuyuki... Something. They haven't said his first name in the match, so I don't know it yet, but I'll get around to it." I showed him each page, pointing out what I knew about them from their form and such from the match, and also told him what our players were displaying.

Chikara was very polite through all of this, only talking to make a few comments, or ask a question, but other than that, he was super quiet.

After I had finished explaining, I went back to writing notes, looking at the game for a bit, then jotting down some more notes in a calm, orderly manner. Ya see, I actually like learning such about other people, and I also kinda like taking notes, so this is why I usually do this when I need to sort out a bunch of information I know I'm gonna need to use in the future.

"Well, that seems tiring," Chikara furrowed his eyebrows as I turned to the overall Nekoma statistics, noting that they had amazingly proficient synchronized attacks in their arsenal as well.

I blew a raspberry and smiled, "Yeah, I guess it is." After finishing that, I glanced up, watching that Kenma character skillfully toss one of his cool feints, and also putting that down under his profile as well.

Ennoshita plopped himself down next to me, and continued to watch me, which kinda made me a little nervous.

I'm not a big fan of people watching me do stuff, 'cause that's just embarrassing.

He gestured at my info on Kenma, raising his eyebrows slightly as he did, "How do you know he's on the observatory side? And, what does that say," He leaned over a bit more and squinted, "He's also pretty skilled with reading the atmosphere? I mean, we're not even half-way through the match, and you have two pages on this guy."

"Well, a little while ago, Tsukishima had tried to predict were Kenma was gonna toss it, and Kenma noticed this, to he pulled a feint. So, I just sort assumed he was observant." After scribbling some more, and then looking at the match again, I flipped a couple of pages.

"And for reading the atmosphere... How do I explain it..." I paused here while stifling laughter at Yamamoto Taketora and Ryuunosuke, "Well, basically, it's sorta like doing the opposite of what the atmosphere is. If we're all pumped up, and totally expecting a head-on attack, he'll make absolutely positively sure that it's indirect. That sorta thing." I rubbed the back of sighing.

"Ah that was boring wasn't it?" I slouched unceremoniously as I adjusted the bandana on my head, "Sorry, I'm not very good at explaining stuff... so... yeah."

He sheepishly smiled, waving his hand, "That's not true, if I had to take notes like this, they'd probably be a whole lot worse."

"Hey now," I warned cheerfully, "That's totally untrue! I've heard your ranked pretty high in your classes at school! You must take pretty good notes to do that, huh?"

Chikara shook his head, "No, no, no, not really..."

With a gasp, I lightly shoved his shoulder playfully, "Your such a liar! I didn't know you were such a proficient fibber!"

Ennoshita's mouth opened and closed like a fish, as if to rebuke my statement, but I gave him a quick grin so that he knew I was joking.

"I wasn't aware you were so dramatic, Oozaki-san," He shot back wittily.

"Pish, posh! I'm more concerned about how you, and almost everyone else calls me Oozaki-san! Jeez, just call me Yoshi!"

We stared at each other for second, then broke out into these ridiculously hilarious grins.

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I tapped my pencil on paper as we lost the 1st set, quickly glancing over to Kiyoko, who had a notebook in her hands already.

I smiled, and patiently waited for the next set to start as Chikara bounced his knees (which was kinda annoying, but I'm not gonna tell that to such a nice guy).

...

The second set was our loss, not a big surprise really, but I was kinda hoping we would at least win one set.

I closed my notebook, expecting that to be it, but to my utter happiness, Hinata was a loud mouth and demand another game.

Score!

More info on Nekoma for me!

Heck yeah!

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"One more time!" Hinata screeched as almost every person on the court laid sprawled out on the floor, seemingly dead from exhaustion.

Neko-jii stared at him with this, 'You've got to be kidding me' face and he pointed at the flying squirrel, "You wanna _another_ game!? When you've been jumping around for three of them!?"

Hinata wobbled a little bit as he tried to stay on his feet, "One more time!"

I sighed, "This is ridiculous. Hinata, chill out." I poked his shoulder, rubbing my temples as he tumbled face-first into the ground. "What a dummy-asking for another game like that. I wanna go home and sleep, thank you very much!"

Mango-kun nodded his agreements, and I pulled Hinata to his feet by the collar of his shirt.

"You guys are all gonna sleep like logs tonight~" I purred as I herded a very tired orange haired monkey over to the rest of the Karasuno zombies.

"That's a good thing?" Ryuunosuke groaned as he held his eyes open with his fingers. "I can barely stand I'm so tired..."

With a grin I clapped my hands together cheerfully, "And just think! You still have to clean up the gym before you can go anywhere!"

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A collective groan resounded through the gym as all the players, drifted toward the coach of the opposite team in order for them to have a small chat before everyone wrapped everything up.

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Hello Folks!

I'd like to personally thank you all for your prayer and support of Maeve, and that I'm terribly grateful. I haven't been getting email update lately, so I hadn't know about some of your PMs and Reviews for awhile, which was kinda made me feel horrible for not replying to some of you. I'm still going through my PMs, so please be patient! Please!

About the nice name I gave Tsukishima...

You see his first name's "Kei", which means "firefly". When the kanji for his name is seem alone, it's usually pronounced as "Kei" which is how he pronounces his name, but this kanjji where a compound phrase, it would probably be pronounced as "hotaru". So, that's where I got his nice name. Yep!

God Bless!

Mellow-chan


	8. Don't Think About The Complicated Junk!

**Title:**

 _A Murder of Mochi_

 **Summary:**

 _I'm not sure if you were expecting me to have some amazing first three months of school, meet some amazingly good-looking guy, and then, you know this whole story become some heartrending drama, or something like that, but I'm sorry to say nothing of interest has occurred._

 _Well, unless you count Ryuunosuke nearly tossing Yuu out the window. That was pretty funny, actually, well, besides Yuu nearly dying for the second time._

 _ **Pairings:**_

 _Undecided_

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 **Don't Think About All That Complicated Junk!**

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I hummed, looking at the Inter-high bracket with slight interest as Mango-kun presented it to me while I had been pleasantly working the late shift on the Wednesday after the Nekoma Match, just after we had gotten back into the school groove again.

I hadn't been expecting to be asked to come to any official games as assistance coach, or anything like that, and I had generally assumed my roll as back up coach had ended as soon as we had took the bullet train back home from that practice game.

Apparentlu, I had been sorely mistaken, because the only things Ryuu and Yuu have talked to me about since school's started again are random, trivial guy stuff they like to talk with me about, and why I haven't been at volleyball practice to show them that "Famous Ukai-Style Receive".

I then have to explain to them that it was a normal receive and that they should such go away, because it was like the exact same thing Yuu and Daichi both do on a _literally_ daily basis.

Speaking of Yuu and receives and things if that nature; that shortie's also's staring to throughly enjoy pestering me with questioned about, "Libero" this, and "Libero" that, and anything associated with liberos in general. Which is very annoying, and if he weren't my friend, I'd probably bashed his face in already. Regardless of whether he's 30 cm shorter than me or not.

Any who, going back to the current situation, I'm basically looking at the Inter-high bracket, rubbing my chin like a bearded old guy.

"I researched a bit on these high schools," He handed me a stapled sheet.

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"You mind telling me what you think, oh wise Amazon?"

After I had made sure to stick my tongue out at the insulting ruffian, I studied the couple of pages, contemplating the situation very briefly.

From local high school sport mags I'd been keeping up with recently, it would seem as if Karasuno had been placed in a pretty serious block, which made me kinda nervous, seeing names like, "Shirotorizawa", "Dateko-Tech", and I was even slightly surprised to see "Aobajousai" on the bracket.

I blinked at the name, scratching my head slightly.

Aobajou was a pretty short bike ride from my house, and since Karasuno doesn't have a school swim team anymore, or a local year around swimming group for that matter, I often head up there for 5:00 morning swim practice that they hold on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and 9:00 morning practice on Saturdays. I sometimes go to after school practices as well, but since I work so much, it's a rarity. Despite this, I'm a pretty well-known figure among the sports teams on campus, being a chick from another school practicing so often and all.

I honestly didn't know they had had such an awesome volleyball team when I started reading the sport mags, but apparently they're a pretty big deal. So, you could imagine that I was a bit surprised to see their name appear in our schools block.

Pretty cool coincidence, huh?

I looked over the listed schools once again, and then handed Mango-kun the sheets of paper. "I've heard about most of the schools in this bracket, and frankly, some of them are going to be real tough later on-and when I mean tough, I mean _tough_." I jumped up onto the cash register counter, folding up my legs Indian-style as I held my cheeks in my hands, my elbows resting on my knees. "I think you guys'll be fine, but logically, with your rag-tag team, you'll need serious luck to get anywhere in this sort of line up."

He furrowed his eyebrows, his lips drawing into a thin thin line. "Are you saying we don't stand a chance?"

"No, Ms. Debbie Downer," I retorted with an amused snort, "I never said that _now did I?_ Sheesh, ya don't gotta be like that!" I puffed out my cheeks childishly, "-All I'm saying is that those kids'll need a bunch of practice, some healthy amount of experience, some stable amounts of trust, lots of luck, and I think you'll go far. Depends on how far _they_ wanna go though."

"And the chances of going to finals?"

I sent him a sour look, removing my hand from my cheeks and into my lap, "Okay, so I'm not saying going to finals, or winning the Inter-high is _impossible_ , per-say..." I paused for a second, think about how I should put it nicely, "It's just... Karasuno is so unexperienced... Lots of first-years, lots of potential, but these kids don't know _anything_ about each other, and honestly, it just seems like a stupid thing to think about at this point. Now don't get me wrong-later in the year I have no doubt they'll have a chance, but as things stand, Karasuno doesn't have what it take's to win in the big big leagues-stuff like finals and such... _Yet_..." I glanced at Mango-kun, with a raised eyebrow, "-But you know that; why are you here?"

He shrugged, sighing as he stared at the bracket sheet.

"So you say it's like that... Huh?"

With a sigh, I smacked my thighs loudly.

 _Why on Earth is he so freaking torn up about this? Jeez, if the team saw him like this, it'd destroy all confidence they have in-_ I stopped my train of though for a moment, before folding my arms.

 _Is that why he's here? So he won't look uncertain in front of his player?_

Okay, so maybe only the tiniest bit of respect crawled into my brain at that moment.

...

 _Maybe he's a better coach than I previously assumed._ I admitted reluctantly in my head.

 _I'm impressed._

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"Don't be depressed, stupid. Win one at a time. One game at a time. Don't get all panicky for no reason. It's stupid." I jumped off the counter, frowning at him with slight annoyance, "Do you know what makes amazing season, an amazing team-great players, Mango-kun?"

The blonde haired tropical fruit stared at me, looking very much lost. "...Talent...?"

I flicked him in the forehead, rolling my eyes, "You Japanese people and your obsession with stupid things like talent. " I grabbed the back of his shirt, and promptly threw him out the door, smiling.

...

"It's a good coach, you idiot. You need to be the pillar of support, a symbol of trust, respect, and dedication for your players, or they won't go anywhere. Seriously, worrying about something as useless as like how great your opponent is or how tall they are, or how scared everyone is of them is just plain baloney. All you, as the coach of your team, needs to worry about how _you_ can make _your_ players achieve their dreams. Simple."

I closed the door, feeling very smug at the stunned look on his face that I was greeted with when I had closed the door.

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The lunch bell rang, and Ryuu turned to me, pumping his fists excitedly.

I smiled, raising a confused brow as I took out my lunch box, "What's the matter with you? Get to go to the bathroom now?"

"N-N-No!" He flung his arms around, obviously flustered, at the comment, but he wasn't perturbed, to my lunch's displeasure, "The Inter-high brackets finally come out today!"

I hummed. "Really now..."

"Yup!" He popped the 'P', "And now we'll show everyone how awesome Karasuno is! Finally!"

I laughed, surprised he wasn't "ORRRYAAAAA"-ing already as I pointed my chop sticks at him, "Well, good luck. I have something to do this weeken-"

I felt two hands smack down on my shoulders, which would normally make other girls shriek, but since I have irritating brothers that enjoy hanging their sister by her feet, coming into her room in the middle of the night with a Freddie Cougar claw, and sudden ninja attacks, I think I'm perfectly accustom to random stuff like this.

"Yoshi-san, what are you blabbing about? You're going to our first game! You promised!"

With two U shaped eyes, I smiled. "Welp. I lied."

The two boys seemed to be looking at each other. Yuu was behind me so I'm assuming that that's who Ryuunosuke's staring at.

"Whaaaa-?"

With a 'phhhht" I laughed, grinning at both of their astounded faces, "I'm kidding you dummies! Of course I'm coming to your first game! How on earth could I not?"

Yuu stole my bandana off my head, "Yoshi-san, don't scare us like that!" Cue him putting my signature navy blue bandana on his own head.

...

Did he just give me a noogie!?

What the hay!?

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"Yuu, do you prefer the electric chair, or the guillotine?"

"Sensei, Yoshi-san threatened my life _again_!"

"Well then, Nishinoya-san, maybe you should try being a bit more nice to her, since she's been running circles around you all year."

"But Sensei-!"

I turned round in my chair and thwacked him in the head, "Don't talk back to the teacher! It's rude!"

The midget grumbled walking around to pull up a chair next to Ryuu, but not before formulating another question about my former libero-ness.

"Yoshi-san, did you play volleyball in middle school? Were you libero? Have you ever played in a game? Why don't you play now!?"

I munched on my lunch, handing them both an onigiri, seeing as I had three, and I only wanted one, "I already told you I don't wanna talk about this." I then proceeded to chomp on me rice ball, occasionally taking a sip on cold barley tea from my water bottle. After swallowing, I continued, "-But if you must know, no I didn't play on my middle school team. I played on the local recreational team down at the sports center. Yeah, I was libero. I've never played in an official game, and I don't play now because I don't want to. Like ta swim better."

Yuu pouted, "Yoshi-san I think that's super unfair. Why don't you play~?"

"I just told you why!"

"But Yoshi-san~..."

"Nope. No more questions."

"KORAAAA!"

"Why the heck are you yelling Ryuu!?"

"Because I'm all fired up!"

"Way ta go Ryuu-san!"

"Both of you, shut up!"

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With a deep, relaxing breath, I raised my hands above my head, stretching, then touching my toes, twisting, then swinging my arms back and forth, smacking my shoulder blades, loosening up my back muscles.

I grinned at my competitor: Tachibana Rin, captain of the Aobajou men's swim team, and the person I'm staking my lunch on.

"Alrighty," Our referee, Nakamura Daiki, vice-captain, shouted in his Speedo, thrusting up a stop watch, "200m backstroke! Loser gives their lunch to the winner!"

"HELL YEAH!" Rin hollers with the pump of his fist, his faced scrunched up competitively. Rin's been at this ever since I started attending morning practice, but this is the first time he's ever bet his lunch. That means he's confident. Which means I'll have much more fun breaking him after this!

"Don't curse! Jeez, kids now a days... so vulgar..." After I had scolded Rin for being a blockhead, I snapped my googles on over my cap, onto my eyeballs with a loud screech:

"BRING IT ON YOU PANSY!"

The whistle in Daiki's mouth chirped, and the both of us jumped into the cold water, bobbing our heads back up, then proceeding to cling to the backstroke starting block. We both eye each other, with secretive smirks, and I shivered at the intense atmosphere. Oh, I could feel my muscles twitching and my breath quickened as the second whistle blew.

"Swimmers, Take Your Mark." Daiki called, his stopwatch raised, ready to start it as soon as he blew the whistle. I saw the girl's team captain, Kiisaki Hana, with a stop watch of her own, giving me this, "You Must Crush That Stupid Idiot' look. That made me smile.

I shifted my feet on the wall, and scrunched up, my face right next to my hands, feet gripping surprising well on the slipper pool tiles.

 _Tweet!_

With my back arching backwards, and my arms immediately being thrown skyward, my feet pushing me off the wall next, into the chilling water.

It was always a nice feeling, the feeling you get as soon as you hit the water, and start doing butterfly kicks, but then with you get to the surface, you suddenly remember, _Oh jeez, I have to do this for another three laps. So tiring. Why do I swim again?_

I panted, turning over at the first wall, kicking off, and very glad to see Rin just behind me.

While continuing this fairing quick pace, Rin and I were tied when flipped at the second wall. Darn! No way is the little alien going to beat me!

Rin was in the lead for the second lap, which made me slightly angry.

 _No WAY was HE going to beat ME!_

 _..._

The third lap called for me to make my arms and legs ache, and that I did, but still, Rin was right there, being annoying, and not freaking losing!

I growled to myself as we both flipped for the final stretch, and I decided, to heck with breakfast, I need to win this!

It was pretty sudden, because when I turned my motor on, Rin definatly wasn't expecting it. I wasn't either, because I general suck at moving my arms fast, but this wasn't the time for me to be concerned about my form. My _lunch_ was one the line here.

We both raced to the wall, and my fingers smashed into the wall.

...

We both hung onto the wall, panting, gasping for sufficient arm as we huffed and puffed.

Everyone who'd gather to see our race nearly screamed their heads off, shrieking, "WHO WON!?"

Daiki cringed, and Hana had the most triumphant look on her face as I crawled out of the pool, flopping onto the deck. I scrambled onto me feet, and ran to the nearest trash can. Then I promptly upheaved my breakfast.

Rin wasn't too far behind, because he was suddenly next to me, also throwing up his breakfast as well.

I panted, falling on my butt in a most undignified manner, "Oh my goodness gracious. I am _never_ doing that again."

Rin hung off the trashcan, looking disoriented, "Y-Yeah, agreed."

I looked up at him, and he glanced down at me, and we both laughed until Daiki came over and threw two big, comfy towels over of heads.

"Rin, you should give your lunch to Yoshi now."

I grinned, jumping up to my feet, then realizing that wasn't a very good idea because I got all dizzy and fell on my butt again. I decided to just give up and lay on my back, spread out like a starfish, still trying to catch my breath.

"H-Hurrah..." I muttered, my cheeks puffing out slightly as I turned over to my stomach.

Note to self: Do not race 200s at the end of morning practice. Especially after a hard practice.

Hana leaned over me, extending her hand, "You need help getting up?"

"Yeah," I grabbed her hand, allowing myself to be pulled up as I puffed out my cheeks again.

Ah, I'm nauseous again. That sucks.

I stumbled over to the bleachers, where a plopped myself down, and rethought my life's plan, because, man, was that a stupid idea.

Soon, I was joined by a moaning Rin, who coughed up his lunch. That was probably the best part of my whole entire morning, seeing RIn's dejected face trailing sadly after her beloved lunchbox.

Poor guy.

...

"Good job today, Yoshi! But I won't lose next time!"

Rin extended his hand as I adjusted my school uniform, and wrung out my showered hair.

I stifled a laugh as a accepted the handshake, "So cliche! What is this; a sappy youth drama?"

He didn't even bother to hide his boisterous laugh as we firmly shook hands. "You coming to practice tomorrow?"

"Nah, I've gotta go cheer on some volleyball dorks at school. Inter-high starts tomorrow." We released grips.

Rin raised an eyebrow at me as his lips twitched into a grin, "Wow, I thought I'd never see the day when Oozaki Koyoshiki skips practice; I mean, your here more than I am!"

I playfully punched his shoulder, laughing as he muttered an "Ow,".

"Hey, some people have lives you jerkface. Any who, I'll be going. Tell Hana to give Daiki a big five-star for making fun of me!"

Rin saluted, "Will do!"

...

I was walking towards the entrance, humming to myself, trying to get out of my serious "In The Zone" mode, and back to my, "Totally Not Serious And Somewhat Entertaining" school mode.

"Iwa-channnnnnn~ I forgot my lunchhhhhh~"

"That's what you get for being stupid."

"Iwa-channnnn, that so mean!"

"And I care because...?"

...

I twitched.

...

"What an irritating voice..." I muttered to myself as I, kicked up my bicycle stand, and flung a leg over the seat, beginning the short bike ride to Karasuno High School.

...

I was just waiting to finally scream my head off at the Inter-high tomorrow. That's basically all I was looking forward to.

Friday was just a small waiting period. Then it would be Saturday, and finally, Karasuno could finally strip themselves of that stupid, "Fallen Champion" title.

That bothers me. When people say stuff like that.

.

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Hey Guys!

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and if you have any questions, concerns, death threats, please leave a review!

God Bless, Mellow-chan


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